Archive
Trans Mountain expansion project: Partisan pipeline politics versus Canadians’ best interests
Jun 26, 2019
The federal government’s latest approval of the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion project (TMX) produced a frenzy of rhetoric from politicians and industry vested interests. Unfortunately for Canadians, partisan and vested interests have overruled their best interests. Although Canada does have a pipeline bottleneck due to the 376 per cent growth in oil sands production since… View Article
How much is BC giving to natural gas companies?
Jun 24, 2019
All British Columbians have a stake in the pricing of natural resources. When trees are logged, when minerals are mined, when fossil fuels are drilled, the companies doing the extracting pay fees to the Province in recognition that the resources are publicly owned. It is therefore in everybody’s interest to know how the government prices… View Article
LNG’s big lie
Jun 17, 2019
The federal government is seeking to use a clause in the Paris Agreement on climate change to get emissions credits for exports of liquefied natural gas (LNG) to Asian countries. This plan is nonsensical for a number of reasons, but at its heart is the “big lie” that LNG will help to reduce global emissions…. View Article
The roots of our housing crisis: Austerity, debt and extreme speculation
Jun 14, 2019
We’re now 10 years on from the biggest financial crisis since the Great Depression. Or, as our national mythology puts it, 10 years since Canada breathed a deep sigh of relief as the crisis mostly grazed our economy and financial system. Since 2008, we’ve had 10 years of congratulatory back-patting over our system of financial… View Article
What would a fossil fuel wind-down look like?
Jun 12, 2019
Canada has an uneasy history when it comes to fossil fuels and climate change. Our leaders have been great at setting far-off targets for reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) or carbon emissions, then failing to meet them. As part of the 2015 Paris Agreement on climate change, Canada committed to a 30-per-cent reduction in carbon emissions… View Article
Why are we letting corporate medicine take hold in Vancouver’s new urgent care centres?
May 23, 2019
The BC government has rolled out a flurry of impressive measures to strengthen our public health care system over the past two years. Flying below the radar, though, is a new effort by for-profit corporations to push their way into BC’s health care system — and the Vancouver Coastal Health authority seems to be waving… View Article
BC child care spending shows the power of good public policy. What’s next?
May 15, 2019
On May 1, the Living Wage for Families Campaign released new living wage rates for 12 BC communities. Even though costs are increasing steeply for rent and other basic necessities, the cost of living for families with children is lower this year thanks to the provincial government’s new child care policies. The living wage is… View Article
BC’s LNG tax breaks and subsidies offside with the need for climate action
May 9, 2019
The BC government’s new fiscal framework for LNG is fundamentally at odds with the province’s CleanBC climate plan. Details in the government agreement with LNG Canada show that BC is subsidizing fossil fuel production at a time when we need to keep it in the ground. The BC government made four major concessions in the… View Article
Reality check: High BC gas prices and pipeline rhetoric from Alberta’s new premier
May 7, 2019
Alberta’s new premier, Jason Kenney, has wasted no time engaging in belligerent actions to “get Alberta’s resources to market.” Right off the bat he passed the “turn off the taps” bill to cut off BC’s supply of oil if the Province doesn’t reverse its stance opposing the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion (TMX). He also claimed… View Article
BC Labour Code amendments: A foundation to strengthen worker rights?
May 6, 2019
The first comprehensive review of BC’s Labour Code in over a quarter of a century has resulted in changes to the law to strengthen protections and collective bargaining rights for workers. In addition to requiring a review of the Code every five years, the changes will: Strengthen successorship rights for workers in identified industries that are… View Article
Canada’s Climate Conundrum: Government oil and gas production policies will doom emission reduction targets
May 2, 2019
In 2015 Prime Minister Justin Trudeau proclaimed in Paris that “Canada is back!” and committed to a 30 per cent emissions reduction from 2005 levels by 2030. So how is that going? According to Canada’s most-recent submission to the UN, emissions were down a mere two per cent from 2005 levels as of 2017. If… View Article
Memo to northeast BC: More fracking earthquakes ahead
Apr 30, 2019
Of the many “unknowns” flagged in a recent science panel report, few are as disturbing as the finding that no one can say how destructive an earthquake may one day be triggered during brute-force oil and gas industry fracking operations. The panel’s report—commissioned by Michelle Mungall, BC’s Minister of Energy, Mines and Petroleum Resources—has landed… View Article
Turn off the taps? Alberta already has Vancouver over a barrel
Apr 29, 2019
Drivers in Metro Vancouver are reeling from record high gas prices, and many commentators are blaming taxes. Now, Alberta’s Premier-elect Jason Kenney is threatening to “turn off the taps” to push prices even higher because, it is alleged, BC is causing them to lose billions of dollars in oil revenues by opposing the Trans Mountain… View Article
Elevating Indigenous women’s voices is critical to addressing gendered colonial violence
Apr 3, 2019
These are the voices of Indigenous women survivors documented in a powerful new report, Red women rising: Indigenous women survivors in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside. The comprehensive study centres the stories of Indigenous women living in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside. The research grew out of activities around the Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Women and was carried… View Article
Can Metro Vancouver afford more equitable access to transit for youth and low-income households?
Apr 2, 2019
In Metro Vancouver the #AllOnBoard campaign is making the case for equitable access to transit for youth and low-income households. The campaign is calling for: (1) free transit for those under age 18; and, (2) a sliding-scale pass for adults based on income. Discounting transit fares deserves to be part of a poverty reduction plan,… View Article
Deferred prosecution agreements or avoid jail and pay a fine
Apr 1, 2019
Deferred prosecution agreements—or DPAs—are much in the news these days thanks to now former Attorney General Jody Wilson-Raybould’s momentous resignation from the federal cabinet. DPAs are a corporate get-out-of-jail-free card or, more precisely, an avoid-jail-and-pay-a-fine-instead card. They became a reality in Canada last year after being slipped into a 500-page federal omnibus budget bill and… View Article
A burning issue: As greenhouse gas emissions from forest fires grow, Ottawa has role to play in restoration
Mar 27, 2019
As one of the largest and the most extensively forested countries in the world, Canada faces unique challenges in tackling climate change. Wildfires are burning more forests than ever as temperature and precipitation patterns change. In the process, millions of tonnes of carbon are released, pushing global greenhouse gas emissions higher. As a signatory to… View Article
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
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
BC’s first-ever poverty reduction strategy: An important step forward, but does it go far enough?
Mar 19, 2019
After ten years of community calls for action, BC has at long last joined the ranks of provinces with a comprehensive poverty reduction plan. BC’s new strategy, TogetherBC, was unveiled yesterday. It sets out a framework to achieve the government’s legislated targets to reduce child poverty by at least 50 per cent and overall poverty… View Article