History lessons for Carole Taylor

Mar 22, 2009
Former Finance Minister Carole Taylor was in court last week testifying in a lawsuit arising from damage to Cambie Street merchants from the Canada Line. She was sympathetic to the merchants but, “It was a TransLink project,” she said. “There’s no question the province didn’t have any control over the project.” She admitted that at… View Article

Contracting Out: Enough to make you sick

Mar 21, 2009
There is now an accumulation of evidence, both international and domestic, that contracting out is good — but only if you happen to own shares in MDS, Sodexho, LifeLabs, Compass, Aramark or any number of other piggybackers. Unfortunately, if you are merely a patient, taxpayer and/or hospital worker you are probably getting sicker, paying more… View Article

Statscan spins the recession

Mar 20, 2009
Here is the upbeat take on retail sales from Statistics Canada’s Daily: Retail sales rose 1.9% in January after decreasing 5.2% in December. Sales rose in five of the eight retail sectors, led by a 3.8% increase in the automotive sector. In volume terms, retail sales were up 1.8%. It goes on to report that… View Article

Food as a right of citizenship

Mar 19, 2009
I came across an interesting piece in YES! Magazine about a city in Brazil that took an innovative approach to poverty reduction and practically ended hunger by adopting a food-as-a-right policy. Belo Horizonte, the fourth largest city in Brazil, has a population of 2.5 million people, slightly larger than the Lower Mainland. The city grappled… View Article

Well, now that Alberta is doing it …

Mar 17, 2009
You could say that BC is more than a little sweet on Alberta. We love their individualistic, tax-cutting, tar-sanding grit. Can’t get enough of it. We even signed a silly economic agreement called TILMA (the BC-Alberta Trade, Investment and Labour Mobility Agreement) so we could be more like them. If Alberta went and ran massive… View Article

BC’s minimum wage soon tied for Canada’s lowest

Mar 15, 2009
On April 15th British Columbia officially wins the race to the bottom. That is the day New Brunswick raises its minimum wage to $8.00 an hour. When that happens New Brunswick, PEI and British Columbia will be tied with the lowest minimum wage in Canada. This three-way tie won’t last for long though. On September… View Article

Social assistance caseload way up

Mar 15, 2009
In our pre-budget Reality Check, we noted that a recession would lead to upwards pressure on social assistance expenditures. The 2009 Budget notes that every 1% increase in the temporary assistance caseload increases expenditures by $3.5 million (and $7 million for the disability caseload). During a major recession it would not be unrealistic to project… View Article

The wrong kind of stimulus

Mar 13, 2009
I am a big fan of stimulus packages for our ailing economy. But my pitch has been that we need to use the occasion to retrofit our economy to be on a more sustainable footing. So it matters a great deal on what we spend those stimulus dollars. If we launch projects that take us… View Article

Beggar-thy-neighbour politics in Metro Vancouver

Mar 13, 2009
Surrey Mayor Dianne Watts made the news this week calling for property-tax-free zones in Surrey to attract new business to her city. Of course, in a climate where businesses are not making new investments, this will at best lure businesses from other parts of Metro Vancouver. Economists call these beggar-thy-neighbour policies because you can only… View Article

BC unemployment rate surges to 6.7% (updated)

Mar 13, 2009
The hurt is on. After jumping to 6.1% in January, the ranks of BC’s unemployed swelled by 14,200 in February, pushing the unemployment rate to 6.7%, its highest level in five years. Given that February is the shortest month of the year, one can only imagine how bad things would have gotten had it been… View Article

Following the money in BC communities

Mar 12, 2009
It is one of those publications that few media outlets will report on, and even fewer British Columbians will read, but BC Stats just released the latest version of its Local Area Economic Dependencies, updated based on 2006 census data. This publication basically asks where the income in various BC communities comes from. In many… View Article

Bioenergy – Catching on like a house on fire or set for slow burn?

Mar 11, 2009
As the global economic meltdown and in particular the US housing market collapse continues to savage BC lumber producers, government leaders boldly predict that wood-fired energy – “bioenergy” – will ride to the rescue of a shell-shocked industry and brutalized rural, resource towns dealing with soaring unemployment rates. February’s Speech from the Throne is a… View Article

UN raps our housing record

Mar 11, 2009
In mid February, a report was released that received very little attention, but should have: The report of the UN’s Special Rapporteur on Adequate Housing’s Mission to Canada (hat tip to Jean Swanson for drawing the final report to my attention; it can be found here; just scroll down to the “Mission to Canada”.) The… View Article

New CCPA study finds growing inequality and declining family incomes in BC

Mar 11, 2009
Yesterday the CCPA released a new study on family income inequality in BC by yours truly, which reveals some disturbing statistics about family incomes over the past 30 years. Among our other key findings: The gap between the wealthiest and the majority of BC families has grown dramatically over the past 30 years. The share… View Article

First Nations as forest partners may be Roundtable’s most significant recommendation

Mar 10, 2009
There’s plenty to be concerned about with the recommendations emanating from the Working Roundtable on Forestry – an open door for raw log exports, diminished corporate taxes for cash-strapped rural municipalities, and a steady creep toward de facto privatization of some public forestlands. And in coming postings I’ll speak more about what’s on the negative… View Article

My “Universal Child Care Benefit” has evaporated to a parallel universe

Mar 9, 2009
I just got a letter from my daughter’s daycare that her monthly fees are going up again next month. They will now be $700. When she started at the daycare two and a half years ago, they were $600. So much for the Harper government’s much touted $100 per month child care benefit. Recall that… View Article

Nailing down homeless targets

Mar 9, 2009
Kudos to BC’s Auditor General for his report on homelessness last week. John Doyle’s report raised numerous concerns, including that the provincial government lacks solid numbers on how many homeless people there are in BC, who they are, and most importantly, he found that the province does not have a clear and comprehensive action plan,… View Article

Pining for some straight talk

Mar 6, 2009
BC Forests Minister Pat Bell grabbed plenty of headlines this week when he said that the threats posed to resource communities by the mountain pine beetle infestation may be overstated. Stories about a rapid deterioration in the quality of trees attacked by the beetles, Bell suggested, are wrong. In fact, the minister said, he expects… View Article

IWD commitments on my wish list

Mar 5, 2009
With International Women’s Day on the horizon this weekend, I’m looking for some commitments. Women are over-represented in low-wage work. So which party in the upcoming election will commit to an investment in BC’s social capital through a living wage policy for the public sector, including public contractors? Stimulating the local economy and adding to… View Article

And Another Thing About the Port Mann non-P3

Mar 4, 2009
Now that the government has abandoned private financing of the Port Mann, it’s time to make the bigger but equally sensible leap and abandon the concept of a cost recovery project toll. I’m all for tolling. Unless you are a fan of the queues inevitably created by what can only be described as our current… View Article