Transparency & accountability

British Columbians are ready for a thoughtful conversation about taxes, inequality, public services

Dec 4, 2012

An oped in today’s Vancouver Sun, outlining key lessons from CCPA opinion research released last week: Beyond the 1%: What British Columbians think about taxes, inequality and public services. British Columbians ready for a thoughtful talk about taxes A growing consensus that extreme inequality is as much an economic problem as it is a moral… View Article

How the rules got fiddled to make sure a public private partnership got pushed through

Jul 12, 2012

By Keith Reynolds

In 2008 British Columbia’s controversial public private partnership (P3) program was in trouble. With P3s private companies put up financing for public services and infrastructure and in exchange get to manage the projects with guaranteed profits for decades. The cost of private finance was always higher than if government borrowed the money itself, but in… View Article

Why do the citizens of Maine have a voice on free trade deals but Canadians don’t?

Jun 22, 2012

By Keith Reynolds

Canada is now facing east and west as it attempts to negotiate trade deals with both Europe and in the Pacific region. Both of these new deals are being negotiated in secret. There is no room for the public to know what is being traded away or to express an opinion. Does negotiating a trade… View Article

TransLink Funding and Governance (Yet Again)

Mar 8, 2012

By Marvin Shaffer

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 toxic spill and communications chill

Mar 6, 2012

By Ben Parfitt

So here’s the little that we know about a pipeline break that occurred more than half a year ago and that British Columbia’s Oil and Gas Commission feels for whatever reasons the public is best kept in the dark about. The incident occurred on August 19 of last year when a 35-year-old pipeline broke and… View Article

A prescription for health care reform: think integration & collaboration

Jan 16, 2012

By Iglika Ivanova

This morning the CCPA released a new report (co-authored by yours truly) that looks at the thorny issue of health care reform in BC and identifies some practical, evidence-based strategies that have been successful in improving quality of care and controlling costs in other jurisdictions. The paper comes out at a time when all Canadian… View Article

BC government claims new power over personal information. Public comment sidelined.

Nov 9, 2011

By Keith Reynolds

The BC government has a lot of personal information about you. Legislation passed last month means the government can do a lot more with it. The legislation passed without the public consultation demanded last year by the Information and Privacy Commissioner. In 2010 a legislative committee undertook a review of Freedom of Information and Protection… View Article

The Union of BC Municipalities Convention: a potpourri of policy

Oct 2, 2011

By Keith Reynolds

For people who follow local policy issues the annual meeting of the Union of BC Municipalities (UBCM) is always chock-a-block with material. Last week’s meeting in Vancouver, which saw hundreds of mayors and councilors along with most of the Cabinet, much of the BC opposition and dozens of groups selling both items and ideas, was… View Article

Will the “Jobs Plan” just add to the government trust deficit?

Sep 24, 2011

By Keith Reynolds

There has been some very good analysis written about the details of this week’s roll out of the BC Liberal government’s “Jobs Plan.” A number of pieces are on this site. Marc Lee and Iglika Ivanova had an excellent column in the Sun. Instead of commenting on the policy thrust, however, I would like to… View Article

The real impact of HST’s defeat on provincial finances

Sep 9, 2011

By Iglika Ivanova

On Sept 8, Finance Minister Kevin Falcon released a much anticipated update on provincial finances. The Minster’s presentation focused on highlighting the cost of the move back to PST/GST, providing some large numbers for the media headlines, instead of looking at the big picture. In case you missed the media coverage, the provincial coffers are… View Article

« Previous 1 … 7 8 9 10 11 … 13 Next »

A progressive take on BC issues

A progressive take on BC issues

Transparency & accountability

British Columbians are ready for a thoughtful conversation about taxes, inequality, public services

How the rules got fiddled to make sure a public private partnership got pushed through

Why do the citizens of Maine have a voice on free trade deals but Canadians don’t?

TransLink Funding and Governance (Yet Again)

A toxic spill and communications chill

A prescription for health care reform: think integration & collaboration

BC government claims new power over personal information. Public comment sidelined.

The Union of BC Municipalities Convention: a potpourri of policy

Will the “Jobs Plan” just add to the government trust deficit?

The real impact of HST’s defeat on provincial finances