Taxes

BC needs bold, transformative change. Will Budget 2018 bring it?

Feb 1, 2018
BC is a beautiful place to call home—and an extraordinarily wealthy one. Yet, despite this wealth, our province is facing crises of affordability, inequality, poverty and environmental degradation. Next month’s provincial Budget is an opportunity to face up to and truly tackle these crises—something that would require the new BC government to think big and… View Article

Tackle inequality through tax fairness: BC Budget 2018

Nov 16, 2017
Over the past decade and a half, BC’s tax system has become remarkably unfair. CCPA analysis shows that personal tax changes between 2000 and 2016—including income, sales, property, carbon and Medical Services Plan (MSP) taxes—overwhelmingly benefited the wealthiest British Columbians. Households with income over $400,000—the richest 1 per cent—received a tax cut of $39,000 per… View Article

BC Budget must go beyond small carbon tax increases to fight climate change

Oct 30, 2017
After many years of inaction, BC needs a new climate plan. The previous government’s August 2016 Climate “Leadership” Plan was more than a disappointment. Not only did it do little to reduce BC’s greenhouse gas emissions, the plan was written hand-in-hand with the fossil fuel industry. For many British Columbians, climate action is synonymous with… View Article

Climate justice and the BC carbon tax: 20th Anniversary retrospective

Oct 27, 2017
BC’s carbon tax was announced in February 2008, a year after the landmark February 2007 Throne Speech that focused extensively on climate change. That set in motion a whole-of-government exercise out of the Premier’s office aimed at developing a climate action plan. (See my ten-year retrospective here.) At the time, a carbon tax was widely… View Article

Ten tax myths revisited: 20th Anniversary retrospective

Oct 6, 2017
In October 1999, I wrote the report Ten Tax Myths. Any retrospective on this issue must examine the relationship between research and analysis and the question of political agency. We know that no matter how good the research and analysis, unless there is a change agent to use it, the work sits frustratingly on the… View Article

Brace yourself for more stale arguments on taxes

Jun 20, 2017
What will happen if a new BC government raises taxes on rich individuals and corporations as the NDP promised in its election platform? If years of finger-wagging from pundits and the business lobby can be believed, you might assume the sky will come crashing down—right onto the BC economy. It’s an argument that’s been hammered… View Article

Climate change and energy issues in the 2017 BC election platforms

Apr 18, 2017
From the fracking fields and Site C dam in BC’s northeast to an LNG terminal and Kinder Morgan’s pipeline and tanker expansion in the southwest, energy issues should figure prominently in BC’s 2017 election campaign. Climate change, the result of all that pollution from dirty energy development here and elsewhere, is an overarching challenge. In… View Article