Posts by Marc Lee

About Marc Lee

Marc Lee is a Senior Economist at the CCPA’s BC Office. In addition to tracking federal and provincial budgets and economic trends, Marc has published on a range of topics from poverty and inequality to globalization and international trade to public services and regulation. Marc is Co-Director of the Climate Justice Project, a research partnership with UBC's School of Community and Regional Planning that examines the links between climate change policies and social justice. Follow Marc on Twitter

A carbon budget framework for BC: Achieving accountability and oversight

May 22, 2018

By Marc Lee

When it comes to climate change Canada’s leaders have been great at setting targets for far into the future and then failing to meet them. Nationally, this pattern goes back to prime minister Brian Mulroney and has continued through prime ministers Jean Chrétien, Stephen Harper and now Prime Minister Trudeau. The Paris Agreement on climate… View Article

Mobility pricing in practice: A look at London, Stockholm and Singapore

Apr 30, 2018

By Marc Lee

An independent commission on mobility pricing (also called “road pricing” or “congestion charging”) will report to TransLink and the Mayors’ Council shortly. In a recent CCPA paper, I looked at the types of mobility pricing that could be considered for Metro Vancouver and the challenge of ensuring a new system is fair. Declining technology costs,… View Article

Kinder Morgan: Costs and benefits unbalanced, not in the national interest

Apr 23, 2018

By Marc Lee

The Alberta and federal governments claim that Kinder Morgan’s Trans Mountain Pipeline Expansion (TMX) is in the national interest due to its economic benefits. But a closer look at TMX’s full range of benefits and costs shows the project to be extremely lopsided in its distribution. First, the economic gains accrue almost entirely to Alberta… View Article

Mobility pricing: An idea whose time has come?

Mar 1, 2018

By Marc Lee

Metro Vancouver is at a critical point where congestion-induced delays are the norm on the region’s roads and bridges. Congestion problems will only steadily worsen because of our growing population and with every additional car added to the region’s roads. Expansion of public transit is widely seen as essential to ensure accessible mobility, but progress… View Article

Everything you wanted to know about the housing taxes and expenditures in BC Budget 2018

Feb 28, 2018

By Marc Lee

BC Budget 2018 was billed to have major investments in housing, and did not disappoint. Indeed, the surprise of the Budget was just how far the BC government went on the demand side through new tax measures to make the property tax system much more progressive, and to discourage out-of-province investors from parking capital in… View Article

Western Canada needs real climate action, not disingenuous arguments

Feb 26, 2018

By Marc Lee

In Western Canada’s slow lurch towards sane climate and energy policy, two prominent arguments have been advanced for the continuation of business-as-usual for the fossil fuel industry in BC and Alberta. Both are interesting because they invoke the need for climate action to justify the further growth of fossil fuel production. The first argument comes… View Article