Archive
Writing from our researchers this year
Dec 20, 2024
Senior economist Marc Lee researched what a more-equitable public transit system would mean for BC communities, an issue that will continue as BC’s new government begins work in 2026…. View Article
Writing from our researchers this year
Dec 19, 2024
Climate change, the impact of fossil fuels and the role of BC’s oil and gas industry were much-read analyzes this year. Here are some key articles…. View Article
Writing from our researchers this year
Dec 18, 2024
Precarious work, and the impacts of precarity on the lives of British Columbians and temporary foreign workers, is the focus of the Understanding Precarity project co-directed by CCPA-BC and was addressed by a number of researchers. Here are some highlights…. View Article
Writing from our researchers this year
Dec 17, 2024
Issues around poverty, the cost of living and affordability were also examined by our researchers. Here are some highlights…. View Article
Writing from our researchers this year
Dec 16, 2024
Housing—in particular a lack of affordable housing throughout BC—was a major concern for British Columbians this year and no doubt will continue in 2025. Our researchers wrote extensively on this issue. Here are some highlights…. View Article
BC Child Poverty Rate Climbs as Income Inequality Grows
Dec 4, 2024
Thirty-five years after Canada’s parliament promised to end child poverty it still hasn’t happened. In 1989, a unanimous all-party House of Commons resolution was passed vowing to end child poverty in Canada by the year 2000. Yet child poverty in British Columbia and across the country is on the rise again. The evidence of the… View Article
Reading the policy tea leaves: What BC’s new cabinet appointments tell us about the government’s priorities
Nov 28, 2024
In the absence of mandate letters, let’s take a look at what the new cabinet picks and the reorganization of some key ministries tell us, in light of NDP and Green election promises…. View Article
Soaring cost of living—especially for housing—causes living wages to increase across BC
Nov 20, 2024
The 2024 living wage for Metro Vancouver has risen to $27.05 per hour, a 5.3% increase from last year. This significant increase highlights the region’s deepening affordability crisis fuelled by sky-high housing costs. Living wages are also going up across the province as our new report shows. While inflation has eased from record highs, essential… View Article
Tax cuts would come back to bite BC
Nov 7, 2024
In the BC election, significant tax cuts were put on the table by both the BC Conservatives and BC NDP in their policy platforms. While they were framed as a way of easing pressures on the cost of living, tax cuts would do little to address the structural problems underlying those cost pressures. Now that… View Article
Rejecting the high costs of tax cuts and austerity to our health
Oct 17, 2024
Today, the election debate is dominated by competing tax cut proposals that risk eroding our collective capacity to invest in one another, thereby widening health inequalities that make us sicker and will further stretch an overburdened health care system…. View Article
Your quick guide to election issues
Oct 16, 2024
CCPA–BC articles casting light on issues of most importance to voters and evaluated solutions being floated on the campaign trail by the major parties… View Article
2024 Rosenbluth lecture with Dr. Katharina Pistor
Oct 11, 2024
In this lecture, Dr. Pistor discusses themes from her latest book, The Code of Capital: How the Law Creates Wealth and Inequality, which explores how the public institutions of the legal system—like property law or taxation—are used to create private wealth…. View Article
A convenient distraction: Is racist messaging being used in BC’s provincial election?
Oct 11, 2024
Ever since the economy started to slow down, the political discourse in BC has shifted dramatically. Immigrants and international students are blamed for the housing crisis and for driving down wages; people experiencing homelessness, addiction or mental health crises are blamed for making public spaces “unsafe” and engaging in crime; and basic steps towards meaningful reconciliation with First Nations are framed as threats to our economic prosperity. … View Article
Tackling racial inequality in Vancouver’s housing crisis: a new community research initiative
Oct 3, 2024
This initiative seeks to shed light on the racialized dimensions of Vancouver’s housing crisis and to develop data-driven housing policies that prioritize both racial equity and decolonization…. View Article
This election we need a conversation about phasing out fossil fuels
Oct 1, 2024
In this BC election, we need to have a real conversation about upping our climate game. That means phasing out the production and consumption of the fossil fuels that are causing climate change. Here’s how.
… View Article
More privatization is not the answer for BC health care
Sep 26, 2024
Leading up to the 2024 election, the BC Conservatives are promising major health care reforms, in particular a greater role for private health care. More choice and competition, they claim, will “unleash the power of private-sector innovation” and reduce wait times. There’s good reason to be skeptical of such claims. . This post looks at how we pay for health care in BC and the perils of flirting with privatization…. View Article
It’s a housing crisis. Why are cities like Vancouver still banning apartments in most areas?
Sep 23, 2024
Vancouver is the epicentre of BC’s housing crisis and shortage. So why does the city still effectively ban new apartment buildings on most of its residential land, reserving it exclusively for low-density housing? … View Article
Building equity: lessons for affordable housing in BC
Sep 18, 2024
No topic has dominated the headlines in recent years more than housing, or the growing lack of affordable options in Metro Vancouver and other cities in British Columbia. Scarce and expensive housing is eroding the province’s liveability and economy and large price rises have become a source of enormous wealth inequality. Our new report… View Article
Meet the CCPA–BC’s new Director! Kevin Millsip
Sep 16, 2024
Hello, My name is Kevin, and I’m the new/old guy at the BC Office. New, in that I joined this September as Director, and old in that I served on the BC Office steering committee for nearly 10 years, about 8 of those as Chair, and I’ve rented desk space from the BC Office over… View Article
Time to get on board with free public transit
Sep 12, 2024
The BC Green Party made the first big splash of the 2024 provincial election campaign with a major commitment to expand public transit, including a promise of “free public transit, province-wide” that has been widely criticized as being too costly. While shifting to free transit for everyone, everywhere could be fiscally and logistically challenging in… View Article