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Reality check: Only BC’s very richest paying higher tax rate

Mar 25, 2019

Under personal tax changes announced by the BC government over the past year and a half—including elimination of Medical Services Plan (MSP) premiums—the vast majority of households are seeing their tax bills fall, while the richest 1% are paying more. This is good news for tax fairness in BC. In a fair system, we pay… View Article

Shaking the Peace: Fracking-induced earthquakes rattle BC Hydro execs and farmers alike

Mar 21, 2019

By Ben Parfitt

BC Hydro officials were so alarmed by an earthquake that shook the ground at its sprawling Site C dam construction project in late November, they ordered a halt to all work and got on the phone to British Columbia’s Oil and Gas Commission (OCG). The 4.5 magnitude earthquake was linked to natural gas company fracking… View Article

Nine things to know about BC Budget 2019

Feb 19, 2019

By Iglika Ivanova and Alex Hemingway

BC Budget 2019 delivers modest new investments in two key areas—poverty reduction and climate action—and maintains momentum on other files that implement the ambitious investments announced last year. Here are our highlights, fresh from the lockup. 1. New BC Child Opportunity Benefit The flagship announcement of BC Budget 2019—and likely of the upcoming first-ever BC… View Article

Five ways BC Budget 2019 could pave the way for a comprehensive poverty reduction plan

Feb 4, 2019

By Iglika Ivanova

This post is part of our BC Budget 2019 series, which highlights key findings from the CCPA’s research and outlines our recommendations for the 2019 provincial budget. Find more from the series at: policynote.ca/budget2019 In a province where poverty was ignored for too long, BC’s current government deserves credit for finally making poverty reduction a… View Article

Through the front door, then the back: How government methodically killed environmental oversight of major gas industry projects

Jan 23, 2019

By Ben Parfitt

Few regulations in British Columbia have died as quick and ignoble a death as a 2014 Order in Council exempting proposed natural gas plants from having to undergo environmental assessments. It was a change that fossil fuel companies drilling and fracking for natural gas in the northeast of the province had demanded for some time…. View Article

Whose wealth is it anyway? BC’s top 10 billionaires and the rest of us

Dec 12, 2018

By Alex Hemingway and David Macdonald

Economic inequality has exploded in recent decades—globally, in Canada and here in BC. Much of our concern about inequality has focused on the growth of extreme disparities between the incomes of the very rich and those of us on the middle and lower rungs of the income ladder. But there’s been much less focus on… View Article

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