Posts by Marvin Shaffer

Marvin Shaffer

About Marvin Shaffer

Marvin Shaffer is a consulting economist and adjunct professor in the Public Policy Program at Simon Fraser University. He has a PhD in Economics from the University of British Columbia and received his BA, Honours in Economics, from McGill University. Marvin has managed his own consulting firm specializing in energy, transportation and natural resource economics for over thirty years.

Marvin previously held senior positions with the Government of British Columbia (head of the Crown Corporations Secretariat and Chief Executive Officer of the British Columbia Transportation Financing Authority). As well, he lectured in economics at the University of British Columbia, and at the University of Queensland and University of Tasmania in Australia. Follow Marvin on Twitter

Blowing in the Wind

Jun 20, 2012
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I suppose I should feel guilty, just as I imagine the good citizens of Rio might feel when they complain about the giant Jesus towering over the city, but I just don’t like the windmill at the top of Grouse Mountain. For me, it not only is a manufactured blight on an otherwise stunning landscape,… View Article

From Bad to Worse — The Latest in BC Energy Policy

May 23, 2012
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It is, I suppose, not surprising that the government would step in and effectively terminate the BC Utilities Commission’s hearing on BC Hydro’s rates. The issues and the evidence were getting embarrassing. In its rate application, BC Hydro reported that by 2014  it will be purchasing over 5000 GWh of private power that it acquired… View Article

Environmental Assessment

Apr 18, 2012
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It’s hard not to sympathize with those who want to drastically change provincial and federal government environmental assessment processes. You only have to suffer through one or two, witnessing seemingly endless meetings, memos, draft terms of reference, real terms of reference, draft reports, real reports, and the obligatory sprinkling of highly structured consultations — all… View Article

TransLink Funding and Governance (Yet Again)

Mar 8, 2012
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I always smile when I think of the provincial negotiator Peter Cameron’s comments when we were wrapping up the final details in the transit funding and governance negotiations leading to the creation of Translink. We all thought we had a good agreement. MetroVancouver would be given broad responsibilities to plan and deliver transit services, develop… View Article

A ‘Jobs for Jobs’ Strategy

Sep 23, 2011
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It is ironic that within weeks of its much publicized report and stated concern about the upward pressures on BC Hydro rates, the government announces a job strategy that will drive up electricity rates more than anything else — more even than the self-sufficiency policy government has belatedly recognized must go. The plan for new… View Article

So Where is the Science?

Sep 8, 2011
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The headline in the Globe today was certainly ominous — “Clark’s Hydro policy threatens to collapse B.C.’s climate change progress, scientist says”. The purported policy change seemed scary — the government might roll back the requirement for BC Hydro to be able to meet domestic electricity requirements in drought conditions. And the scientist’s description of… View Article

BC Hydro Review

Aug 12, 2011
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If it were true that BC Hydro could effectively plan and operate its system with 20% fewer workers, as the government panel has recently suggested in its Review of BC Hydro, one would have to assume that the BC Hydro Executive and Board, as well as the BC Utilities Commission, have all grossly failed in their… View Article

Hiding $5 Billion

Jun 23, 2011
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A reporter from back East called me yesterday to ask about the B.C. Auditor General’s May report into a Vancouver Coastal Health Authority P3. As Keith Reynolds pointed out, the AG found that the actual costs of the P3 were much higher than what the Coastal Authority and Partnerships BC had said they would be…. View Article

To HST or Not to HST

Jun 19, 2011
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The campaign to save the HST is rather shameless, not to mention bad public policy. We won’t, as HST spin masters would have it, pay less tax with the new and improved HST. The amount of tax we collectively pay depends on the amount of services and support government provides — total government spending– not… View Article