Archive
Don’t be fooled by the Fraser Institute’s fearmongering on taxes
Jun 14, 2017
The latest “Alert” from the Fraser Institute hits a new low in misrepresenting reality. The article claims to analyze the impact of proposed NDP-Green tax changes on BC families but their so-called “analysis” is pure fiction. In their election platform, the NDP proposed raising taxes for the wealthiest British Columbians and for large corporations as… View Article
Kinder Morgan’s Trans Mountain pipeline approval based on false assumptions
Jun 14, 2017
Once the political reality of British Columbia is determined, next steps on energy projects like Kinder Morgan’s Trans Mountain pipeline expansion and the Site C dam will follow. And while the federal government has approved the pipeline expansion, the BC NDP and Green Party—which have signed a power-sharing agreement following the provincial election—say they will… View Article
Historic gains in Ontario workers’ rights: What BC can learn
Jun 12, 2017
In light of the growth and prevalence of precarious employment and the lack of decent conditions of employment for vulnerable workers, labour advocates and unions in Ontario campaigned for improvements to employment and labour relations laws. As a result of their campaign, in February 2015, Ontario’s provincial government established an independent review headed by two… View Article
Book review – The broken ladder: How inequality affects the way we think, live and die
Jun 6, 2017
The following is a review of The Broken Ladder: How Inequality Affects the Way We Think, Live, and Die by Keith Payne, published by Viking in May 2017. In 2016 Oxfam made the almost unbelievable announcement that the richest 62 people in the world had as much wealth as the poorest half of the global population. That was… View Article
Four lessons about electoral reform for a new BC government
Jun 5, 2017
Under their recent agreement, the BC NDP and Greens have promised a referendum on electoral reform in BC. This is great news. A huge amount of good could come from changing our outdated first-past-the-post (FPTP) system, as Alex Himelfarb argued in a recent analysis for CCPA (although he was speaking to the federal context). Let’s… View Article
To protect her legacy, Premier Clark should put a moratorium on the destruction of documents
Jun 1, 2017
British Columbia is in interesting times politically and that makes transparency around government decisions more important than ever. It is both a medium-term issue and a critical short-term issue. Controversies around access to government information dogged the government in recent years. The “triple delete” scandal saw a government functionary fined $2,500 for making false statements… View Article
BC NDP-Green agreement offers historic opportunity for game-changing new policies
May 31, 2017
What an interesting and exciting moment in BC politics! For a bunch of policy nerds like us at the CCPA, it doesn’t get much better than this. On Tuesday May 30, the BC NDP and BC Green Party released the terms of their agreement to cooperate and grant legislative confidence to a minority NDP government…. View Article
Greenhouse gas emissions and the Energy East Pipeline
May 24, 2017
I submitted the following to the National Energy Board, which is seeking comments on what should be included as part of the upcoming hearings on the proposed Energy East Pipeline. In particular, they are interested in arguments about the inclusion of greenhouse gas emissions. The deadline for submissions is May 31 if you are inclined… View Article
Getting big money out of BC politics: 5 ways to do this right
May 23, 2017
With the provincial election behind us, there’s at least one thing that the overwhelming majority of British Columbians seem to clearly agree on: we need big money out of our politics. The corrupting influence of vast sums of cash from (primarily) corporations and the wealthy in BC’s political system has received a great deal of… View Article
Election nail biter: what’s next for BC politics?
May 17, 2017
A week after British Columbians went to the polls, we’re still waiting to learn the final seat count. And when we do (hopefully next week), it’s unlikely we’ll know precisely what our new government will look like. Whatever the outcome, we know things are going to be different. And one thing seems clear: there is… View Article
A Dam Big Problem: Regulatory breakdown as fracking companies in BC’s northeast build dozens of unauthorized dams
May 3, 2017
A subsidiary of Petronas, the Malaysian state-owned petro giant courted by the BC government, has built at least 16 unauthorized dams in northern BC to trap hundreds of millions of gallons of water used in its controversial fracking operations. The 16 dams are among “dozens” that have been built by Petronas and other companies without… View Article
Book review – Just cool it! The climate crisis and what we can do
May 2, 2017
The following is a review of Just cool it! The climate crisis and what we can do by David Suzuki and Ian Hanington, published by Greystone Books/David Suzuki Institute. Two passages in the introduction to this book encapsulate the situation that confronts us as the effects of global warming become more serious every day. The first describes a… View Article
BC’s child poverty rate: Don’t cherry-pick the numbers
Apr 28, 2017
It’s always welcome to see poverty identified as an important issue in our elections as it was in last Wednesday’s BC Leaders’ Debate. We want to see our political leaders challenging each other to do better on this file. However, in the debate—as well as in numerous media interviews—Premier Clark has repeated the claim that… View Article
Sharing our realities: Life on disability assistance in BC
Apr 27, 2017
Both people with disabilities and those who work within the income assistance system say the effects of provincial government policy in British Columbia are demoralizing. Looking beyond the numbers to focus on real-life stories, the report Sharing Our Realities: Life on Disability Assistance finds a remarkable consensus between people with disabilities, income assistance workers, and… View Article
The incredible shrinking role of government in BC
Apr 25, 2017
As BC’s political parties lay out their election platforms, media pundits tend to focus on the flurry of spending promises. But all this attention on spending makes it easy to forget that we’ve actually witnessed an incredible shrinking of government’s role in BC over the past 15 years. Unlike the strange mist that shrinks Scott… View Article
Searching for affordable housing in the 2017 BC election platforms
Apr 24, 2017
Housing affordability is one of the top issues for voters in the 2017 election campaign, particularly for those in pricey Metro Vancouver. While most of the media attention has been on the jaw-dropping prices of residential real estate, a tight rental market has fuelled rising rents and renovictions, and the most recent count uncovered a… 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
Distinguishing consent from veto in an era of reconciliation
Apr 10, 2017
An unfortunate legacy of the Harper era in Canada is that public officials and the media often conflate the right to consent for projects or policies that could affect Indigenous peoples with veto power. That error is not supported by Canadian or international law, and is at odds with the goal of reconciliation between Aboriginal… View Article
Economic insecurity touches seniors’ lives in profound ways
Apr 6, 2017
In the spring of 2016, the CCPA’s Terra Poirier and photographer Caelie Frampton met with three local seniors to document their lived experience of poverty and inequality. The images and stories of these women paint a sobering picture of what life is like when the hardships of living with a low income are combined with… View Article
As the BC election starts, where’s our collective head at?
Apr 4, 2017
Much of BC’s pre-election debate has coalesced around the free-for-all in corporate political donations—and understandably so, given the scale of the problem that’s been revealed by various investigations. But worrying as the potential corruption of our democratic system may be, it’s not the only concern weighing on British Columbians’ minds as we draw closer to… View Article