Employment & labour

Cost of Learning Growing Faster than Incomes

Sep 11, 2012
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A new report by the CCPA, Eduflation and the High Cost of Learning, shows that average university tuition bill in Canada has grown three times faster than inflation over the last 20 years. It’s also outpaced the growth of family incomes, making university considerably less affordable for the average Canadian family than it used to… View Article

A Green Industrial Revolution

Jun 12, 2012
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Today the CCPA (national) released a new big picture report by myself and student researcher Amanda Card calling for a Green Industrial Revolution. The report builds on work done for the BC-focused Climate Justice Project, bringing to bear a national analysis of green and not-so-green jobs. We take a close look at GHG emissions and employment by… View Article

Federal Budget Bill and Employment Equity

Jun 1, 2012
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So many big changes are happening in the Federal government’s budget bill — Bill C-38 — that some significant issues like the changes to the Federal Contractors Program (FCP) have escaped attention. Part 4 Division 42 of C-38 is very short. It merely says that subsection 42(2) of the Employment Equity Act is replaced by… View Article

Seven reasons why you should support a move to low tuition fees for higher education

May 29, 2012
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Much of the media coverage of the Quebec student protests has dismissed the protestors as cranky middle and upper-middle class children trying to protect their unfair privilege. And in fact, the vast majority of today’s university students do come from relatively well-off families. But rather than weakening their position, this supports the protestors’ claims that… View Article

Hail to the Chief? Or Bailing on the Chief?

Apr 18, 2012
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A leaked provincial Cabinet document indicates that the provincial government is contemplating “suspending” the powers of one of its most powerful public servants in order to expedite a controversial logging program that has raised alarm bells in the professional forestry community. The document leaked late Tuesday afternoon, is the second confidential report in as many… View Article

Log exports: waving the white flag of economic defeat

Mar 28, 2012
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Hi folks — I recently wrote this op ed for the Times Colonist on raw log exports and wanted to share it here too. We’re told there’s no alternative to sending our unprocessed wood out of the country; but some in the industry beg to differ… As more and more raw, unprocessed logs leave British… View Article

Enbridge Pipe Dreams and Nightmares

Mar 21, 2012
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We released today a report by yours truly on the economic costs and benefits of the proposed Enbridge Northern Gateway Pipeline. In particular, I take aim at the outrageous claims about jobs made by the feds and Enbridge as part of their sales pitch. The report takes a closer look at the input-output modelling of job impacts, and considers alternative investments… View Article