The loss of a kind and powerful person – Sandy Cameron

Oct 19, 2010
We at the CCPA are saddened by the recent death of Sandy Cameron. Sandy was one of the kindest and most thoughtful people I’ve ever met. And he was a powerful person — not in the sense of formal power, but in the sense of inspiring others through his words and actions as an anti-poverty… View Article

Why incentive pay won’t fix education or health care

Oct 14, 2010
It turns out — surprise! — that it’s really hard to measure quality in complex social systems and that employing simplistic quantitative measures can backfire. That’s the take-home message from a recent talk by UC Berkley economist and public policy professor Jesse Rothstein who came to SFU to present his latest research on using standardized… View Article

What do we value more? Good taste or saving young lives?

Oct 9, 2010
Last May there was uproar in the media about an advertising campaign planned by the Insurance Corporation of British Columbia (ICBC).  The Insurance Corporation was targeting young drivers with a racy campaign to persuade them not to drink and drive.   The then Solicitor General Kash Heed put the kibosh on the campaign that had cost… View Article

Sshh. It’s an election.

Oct 7, 2010
This piece, by myself and Heather Whiteside, also appeared in the Vancouver Sun today. It summarizes findings from Election Chill Effect: The Impacts of BC’s New Third Party Advertising Rules on Social Movement Groups,  co-published yesterday by the CCPA, BC Civil Liberties Association, and BC’s Freedom of Information and Privacy Association. “For groups to be… View Article

Which is more important, lower taxes or a higher minimum wage?

Oct 2, 2010
BC Labour Minister Murray Coell apparently got taken to the woodshed this week after telling a forum at the Union of BC Municipalities that his government was considering raising the minimum wage. The next day he quickly called a press conference on the driveway of a Whistler hotel to “clarify” his remarks.  He really just… View Article

We told you so: HST introduction a factor behind GDP drop in July

Oct 1, 2010
Among the concerns about the HST that we at the CCPA have raised was the poor timing of the tax change. From my pre-budget piece last September: If British Columbians respond to the HST by reducing their consumer spending, the timing of the HST introduction may actually slow down the economic recovery, which should be… View Article

New voices in support of a BC poverty reduction plan

Sep 30, 2010
Two important new voices joined the call for a BC poverty reduction plan in the last couple days. First, on Tuesday, BC Provincial Health Officer Perry Kendall released a special report entitled Investing in Prevention. The report received quite a lot of media attention. However, most of the coverage dealt with the common-space issues of… View Article

So what’s a green job, anyway?

Sep 30, 2010
Today CCPA released a new report by myself and Ken Carlaw, an economist at UBC-Okanagan, called Climate Justice, Green Jobs and Sustainable Production in BC. I doubt you’ll see any headlines about it in the major news dailies, but I think it will have a longer-lasting impact as a key economic framing piece for our… View Article

Poverty Reduction: Even Alberta?

Sep 27, 2010
Currently, six provinces have official poverty reduction strategies either in place or (in the case of Manitoba) in development. BC, despite having the highest poverty rates, remains stubbornly in the minority of provinces without a plan (along with Alberta, Saskatchewan and PEI). But now comes news earlier this month that an all-party committee of the… View Article

What will it take to bring smarter family policy to BC?

Sep 27, 2010
Did you know that the BC government has set a goal to reduce early childhood vulnerability to 15% by fiscal year 2015? You can hardly tell by their actions. BC did introduce full-day kindergarten in some communities this fall, but other than that the family policy front has been rather quiet lately. The latest childhood… View Article

Protecting the environment and social justice: you can’t have one without the other

Sep 26, 2010
A couple of weeks ago there was a conference in Vancouver on building a green economy.  It was a conference with a difference. Organized by the Columbia Institute, the conference focused on jobs and justice as well as the environment.  Roughly 15 unions and 10 environmental organizations came together to talk about meeting environmental challenges… View Article

A revenue negative carbon tax?

Sep 22, 2010
BC’s carbon tax was supposed to be “revenue neutral”, meaning all carbon tax revenue would be “recycled” to British Columbians through personal income tax cuts, corporate income tax cuts and a low-income credit. When the 2008 budget launched the carbon tax, we were provided with a forecast that had revenues precisely match recycling through tax… View Article

Pat Bell’s YouTube Foray – Sowing Seeds of Misinformation

Sep 21, 2010
Unlikely as it is to garner a huge following on YouTube, one suspects a recently uploaded video message by B.C. Forests Minister Pat Bell may soon have more than a few forest industry workers, commercial tree nursery owners and members of Bell’s own ministry shaking their heads in disbelief. Under the pretext of kicking off… View Article

Burns Lake looks to wood pellets

Sep 20, 2010
BC became prosperous on the basis of its resource industries. But today further development of resources is running into wall of climate policy. Good climate policies increasingly in conflict with old industrial policies. In spite of some small moves on the climate front from Victoria, a resource extraction mindset still dominates the corridors of power…. View Article

Save The Earth – Vote!

Sep 19, 2010
Global warming is “a socialist plot” to steal from the rich – according to Prime Minister Stephen Harper. However, it’s not just Harper.  The federal government, under both Liberals and Conservatives, has not only resisted environmental action in Canada, they have opposed international efforts to protect the Earth. Indeed, George Monbiot wrote that Canada is… View Article

Ministry of Environment Cuts: Will That be Oil With Your Water?

Sep 17, 2010
British Columbians already have scant information on the number of toxic oil and hazardous waste spills in the province. They may soon have a lot loss. This, at a time when provincial environmental personnel are stretched razor thin in responding to the nearly 4,000 such spills that occur each year in the province. This year,… View Article

Our priorities for BC Budget 2011

Sep 17, 2010
On September 15, I presented CCPA-BC’s recommendations for BC Budget 2011 at the Vancouver BC Budget Consultation public hearing. Take a look at my presentation slides for a brief overview of our take on BC’s current budget situation and economic outlook, and our advice for leading the province’s recovery…. View Article

The Globe’s Report on Private Schools

Sep 15, 2010
If there was truth in news reporting, the Globe’s “report” on private schools (Sept. 14) would be labeled a “special advertising supplement”. It is essentially a cheerleading exercise for private schools, funded by advertising from private schools, so you’ll find no news in this report. Which is too bad because the topic of private schools… View Article

Young university grads having a hard time in the Canadian labour market

Sep 13, 2010
An interesting chart from The Economist shows that over a third of young university graduates in Canada end up working in low skilled jobs. In fact, Canada is second only to Spain in the OECD when it comes to young grads employed in jobs that fail to take advantage of their skills. There is certainly… View Article

BC’s economic management brilliant says Premier

Sep 10, 2010
I’m sitting here today where most economists are saying we have the best economy in the country and we have opportunities not just for job growth but investment growth that are unmatched anywhere in the continent. (Gordon Campbell speaking to reporters this week) The Liberal government has always claimed its biggest virtue is economic competence…. View Article