Economy

Job creation alone will not solve BC’s poverty problem

Apr 29, 2010
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Whenever he’s confronted with questions about BC’s record high child poverty rates or by the growing income inequality in the province, our Premier maintains that the best social policy is a job. In fact, reducing the costs of doing business in BC seems to be this government’s chief economic strategy. Consider the HST, for example,… View Article

In defense of the stimulus

Mar 25, 2010
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Earlier this week, the Fraser Institute published a controversial report which argued that the government stimulus did not do much for economic growth in the last two quarters of 2009, suggesting that government spending on infrastructure was useless. While their analysis suffers from serious shortcomings, which I outlined in a previous blog post here, their… View Article

The role of stimulus spending in the recovery

Mar 24, 2010
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Yesterday, the Fraser Institute published a new report, which argues that the government stimulus did not drive Canadian economic growth in the last two quarters of 2009, suggesting that government spending on infrastructure was useless for the economy. The report earned the scorn of Federal Finance Minister Jim Flaherty, who called it “poorly done and it’s… View Article

More Please!!!

Mar 9, 2010
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Every now and again you read something so outrageous you have to laugh. So it is with the report recently released by BC Citizens for Clean Energy: A Triple Legacy for Future Generations. The essence of this lobby group’s proposal is that the government should develop an export policy for green energy targeting up to… View Article

Women in the Canadian Economy

Mar 8, 2010
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Last weekend, I spoke at a community event celebrating International Women’s Day in Vancouver. It got me thinking about the status of women in the Canadian economy, reflecting both on the successes over the last half century and on the areas where work is still needed to achieve gender equality. As a young woman in… View Article

Costs do matter!

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Admittedly, I’ve been over 4000 kilometres away from the frenzy on Robson Street for the last two weeks and more. Nevertheless, I still can’t buy into the new found enthusiasm for the Olympics. True, the men’s hockey final was spectacular, and I enjoyed it as much as anyone, celebrating with a margarita at a favourite… View Article

Is it time to stop worrying about the economy?

Feb 22, 2010
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If you read the papers in this province, you’d think BC had long forgotten about the recession. Every bit of economic good news is trumpeted enthusiastically, from small increases in employment to the latest growth forecast released by private sector economists. Yet economic forecasting is a notoriously difficult business. Just a year ago, we saw… View Article

Will the Olympics boost long-term tourism to BC?

Feb 15, 2010
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“We’ve invited the world, they’re coming, and the place is a mess.” That was the tag line the CCPA gave to our BC Solutions Budget back in 2004. At the time, we argued as strongly as we could that if BC was to change the story the world would tell of us this month, we… View Article