Posts by Marc Lee

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

Fossil fuel expansion as a crime against humanity

Jun 23, 2011
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After at 2010 that was one of the warmest years on record, 2011 has shown us astonishing patterns of extreme weather worldwide. It would take a long time to make the full list, but you know what I mean: tornadoes, floods, drought, record cold in some parts, record heat in others, hailstorms (Al Gore does… View Article

A billion dollars of bogus carbon credits

Apr 19, 2011
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A story in today’s Vancouver Sun is disturbing, arguing that BC could make $1 billion from selling carbon offsets once the Western Climate Initiative gets underway. The projects are mostly in forest management and conservation, meaning less cutting and more sequestration of carbon in the forests themselves. The conservation part is undoubtedly a good thing… View Article

Transportation Transformation

Apr 19, 2011
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Just in time for Earth Day, we have a new release from the Climate Justice Project, Transportation Transformation: Building Complete Communities and a Zero-Emission Transportation System in BC. The report is perhaps the most visionary of our CJP publications to date (and has lots of great graphics to illustrate that vision), a necessity given that… View Article

Can cooperatives humanize the economy?

Apr 13, 2011
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Book Review of Humanizing the Economy: Cooperatives in the Age of Capital, by John Restakis, New Society Publishers, 2010. The economy is about business, right? Sure, we have a dynamic mixed economy, and most people support decent social programs and government intervention to protect the environment or to improve living conditions for the poorest. In… View Article

Robin Hood Economics

Apr 5, 2011
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Canada’s economic context at the time of Election 2011 is one of “precarious recovery”, and overall demand conditions are weakened by a few major factors. Unemployment is still just under 8%, which is good compared to the double-digit unemployment of the early 1990s, but not great compared to the expansions of the late 1990s and… View Article

Ten years of tax cuts: a household’s perspective

Apr 1, 2011
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I did my taxes yesterday and once again was surprised to see how low my family’s income taxes have gone. In 2010, my wife and I paid a combined 13.7% of our income in federal and provincial income tax. Canadian modesty does not permit me to disclose the exact amount of income, but it was… View Article

Hydro rate hikes are bad news for BC’s poorest

Mar 3, 2011
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BC Hydro has proposed to dramatically increase its residential electricity rates. While the proposal still must be approved by the BC Utilities Commission, and the BCUC could intervene to change those rates in its decision, as it stands low- to middle-income households are going to get hammered. For example, the 12% of BC households with… View Article

Fair and Effective Carbon Pricing

Feb 23, 2011
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Today, we released a new Climate Justice Project report, Fair and Effective Carbon Pricing: Lessons from BC, by yours truly. I’m excited about getting this paper out into the world, given that climate policy seems to have fallen off the radar in BC – even as we are seeing daily evidence of the impacts of… View Article

Christy Clark’s “sustained development”

Feb 1, 2011
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A news release from the Christy Clark camp puts its focus on energy policy in BC. While the press release reads as slickly as its candidate, let’s pause to deconstruct its key messages: “British Columbia is in an enviable energy position and we need to take full advantage of the resources we have in the… View Article

Missing the Vote: Democratic Reform in BC

Dec 16, 2010
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I’ve long thought that we should lower the voting age to 16, so thanks to Mike deJong for raising it in the BC Liberal leadership campaign. I speak from some experience, as I voted shortly after I turned 17 in the Ontario provincial election. I was a frosh in residence at Western and no one… View Article