Archive
The Wild West? Come on! Put your emotions in check
Jun 17, 2011
The on-line newsmagazine, The Tyee, recently ran an opinion piece of mine under the headline “The Wild West and Dysfunctional BC Politics: Fracking and sour gas deserve debate, but get cartoon treatment from the Clark government.” My special thanks to Tyee editor David Beers or whoever it was who chose to run the image of… View Article
BC poverty rates highest in Canada, again
Jun 15, 2011
Statistics Canada released a report today on incomes across Canada in 2009. As First Call BC points out in their news release, key points for BC include: BC’s child poverty rate rose to 12 percent in 2009, the highest child poverty rate of any province for the eighth year in a row. The BC rate… View Article
The Wild West and dysfunctional B.C. politics
Jun 14, 2011
Anyone wanting to see just how dysfunctional politics in B.C. has become should check out Bob Simpson’s recent Private Members’ statement in the provincial legislature. For seven minutes Simpson, Member of the Legislative Assembly for Cariboo North and one of two Independent MLAs, spoke about why he and fellow Independent Vicki Huntington (Delta South), had… View Article
Foreign trade issues playing out in BC
Jun 10, 2011
Last week Premier Christy Clark took the unprecedented step of promising there would be public consultation regarding the Province’s position on the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) between Canada and the European Union. If this really happens it would be an important opportunity. The current government has never allowed the public to have a… View Article
Social Determinants of Health
Jun 7, 2011
It is now clear that economic, and social variables – more than individual behaviour – are the most salient factors in determining people’s well-being. Working and living conditions, the distribution of wealth, and where we live are some of , “the primary factors that shape the health of Canadians” (CCPA Monitor, June 2010). Almost everything… View Article
What would Stanley say about Brigette Marcelle?
Jun 4, 2011
For the last 30 years or so when confronted with a thorny issue I have often asked myself this question: what would Stanley say? This is the lens I would like to apply to Brigette Marcelle’s actions in the Senate last week. Marcelle is the young Senate page who during the Speech from the Throne… View Article
NDP propose BC Poverty Reduction Act
Jun 2, 2011
Today in the BC Legislature, the Official Opposition (MLA Shane Simpson) introduced a private member’s Bill proposing a BC Poverty Reduction Act. That Act, were it to be enacted, would see the government develop a comprehensive poverty reduction strategy, and legislate specific targets and timelines to reduce the breadth and depth of poverty within one… View Article
Oil and our coast – surely southern B.C. as important as The Great Bear
Jun 2, 2011
Like Mitch Anderson, in a must-read feature article in The Tyee, I am perplexed at the comparatively little attention that environmental organizations pay to the growing prospect of massive increases in oil shipments out of the Port of Vancouver. For the last few years, a coalition of environmental organizations, First Nations and others have stepped… View Article
Suspicion about private finance schemes growing in the UK
Jun 2, 2011
On May 16th British Columbia’s Auditor General published a report on Vancouver General Hospital P3 that raised serious doubts about public private partnerships in British Columbia. In the UK, where P3s have been around a lot longer, the doubts are getting even graver. Under P3s, or private finance initiative (PFI) as they are known in… View Article
Here’s what bold climate targets look like
May 29, 2011
Premier Christy Clark recently re-affirmed her commitment to BC’s greenhouse gas emission targets in an open letter to British Columbians. That’s good (and thanks to our friends at the Sierra Club of BC for drawing this to my attention). To remind folks: BC has committed to reduce it’s GHG emissions by 33% by 2020, and… View Article
About Fracking Time: BC’s Independent MLAs Call on Premier to Investigate Hydraulic Fracturing
May 27, 2011
As British Columbia Premier Christy Clark makes her debut in the provincial legislature this coming week, the media spotlight will likely be on the predictable verbal sparring between her and Adrian Dix, the NDP’s recently minted leader, over Clark’s alleged “fix” of the Harmonized Sales Tax. Meaning that Independent MLAs Bob Simpson and Vicki Huntington… View Article
Christy’s HST “fix”: politics trumps good policy
May 26, 2011
This is no way to make tax policy. Wednesday’s proposed reforms to the HST provide yet more evidence that what we really need is a Fair Tax Commission –– a full public engagement exercise in which the entire tax regime is on the table, and people can deliberate on how we want to raise the… View Article
British Columbia Auditor finds costly failings in Province’s first hospital P3
May 23, 2011
A new report by British Columbia’s Auditor General has debunked nearly every benefit claimed so far for public private partnerships (P3s). The Auditor General’s report on a Vancouver Coastal Health Authority (VCHA) project adds to earlier criticisms by his counterparts about failings in P3 hospital projects in Quebec and Ontario. The BC report, released on… View Article
Have we completely bought the idea that “There Is No Alternative”?
May 18, 2011
Once again, over the last few weeks Canadians have had energy costs on our minds. Prices at the pump rocketed up to nearly $1.50, while the price of a barrel of oil was actually going down. What can we possibly do? Industry officials blame unrest in the Middle East and floods on the Mississippi. Former… View Article
On the Forest Fire Front Line: One Ecologist’s Take on What it Will Take to Safeguard Communities
May 13, 2011
With one of the colder springs on record, many British Columbians quite naturally yearn for a good stretch of warm, dry weather. But for many people in the province, prolonged periods of hotter and drier weather are often far from welcome. That’s because when things get hot and dry they burn. And in many regions… View Article
Thousands more millionaires in Canada
May 10, 2011
In case you were worried, the Financial Post reports that “new wealth” will continue to be generated in Canada and be one of the developed countries to “have some of the biggest concentrations of millionaire households by 2020.” I’m feeling so relieved, aren’t you? A Deloitte LLP report predicts that 2.4 million households in Canada will… View Article
Open government a Cabinet secret declares BC Minister
May 7, 2011
I love reading Estimates debates in the legislature. It is a rare opportunity for Opposition critics to grill their assigned Cabinet Ministers at length. Sometimes the oddest things come out. On Wednesday the NDP Critic Doug Routley was questioning the Minister for Citizen Services and Open Government Stephanie Cadieux. It turns out that following up on… View Article
Lessons for Ottawa from Victoria, Lessons for Victoria from Ottawa
May 5, 2011
Many Canadians have expressed fear about what our new national government, a majority elected by a 39% minority, will do now that it has four years of real power. For those concerned Canadians, British Columbia offers a lesson. BC’s government has discovered from an independent study that their HST is not revenue neutral. It will… View Article
BQ demise a big loss
May 3, 2011
We have a lost a lot with the demise of the Bloc Quebecoise as a significant presence in Parliament. Social policy in Quebec has been more progressive than elsewhere in Canada for a long time. This is particularly important for policy related to women’s rights, including labour and social policy that allow women’s full participation… View Article
Harper’s Reckless Economics
May 1, 2011
Throughout the election campaign Stephen Harper claimed the political high ground on the management of the economy. The surprise is that the opposition has pretty much let him get away with this. During the English Language debate the first question focused on $6 billion tax cuts to corporations. Harper said there were no tax cuts… View Article