Archive
The BC economy’s unbalanced and inequitable growth
Jul 22, 2016
Skyrocketing property transfer tax revenues have been in the news the past few days, but the bigger story, well-documented in a recent Huffington Post article, is how dependent the entire BC economy is on the unsustainable and socially damaging housing market. It is instructive to reread the 2012 BC Jobs Plan to see how far… View Article
A little-known election is limiting your free expression rights
Jul 14, 2016
You might not have noticed it, but since June 4th there has been an election going on in British Columbia – and legislation that governs that election severely limits what people can say about the issues relating to that election (and how they can say it) until the election is completed on July 20. The election… View Article
BC should eliminate the MSP. Here are two better options.
Jul 6, 2016
The MSP has been in the news a lot in recent months, and with good reason: it’s an unfair tax that needs to be eliminated. The BC government announced some reforms to MSP in Budget 2016, in response to mounting pressure from grassroots organizations like the BC Health Coalition, concerned citizens and both opposition parties…. View Article
BC needs to get to work on working poverty
Jun 29, 2016
Over 100,000 working-age people in Metro Vancouver were working but stuck below the poverty line in 2012, not counting students and young adults living at home with their parents. This is the striking finding of my new report, co-published by the CCPA, the United Way of the Lower Mainland and the BC Poverty Reduction Coalition…. View Article
The international trend to public energy
Jun 28, 2016
The most Canadians probably know about the new mayor of London, England is that he is the city’s first Muslim mayor and that one of his first public actions was to scrap with Donald Trump over the Donald’s promise to block Muslims from entering the United States. But there are a lot more interesting things going… View Article
Yes, a $15 minimum wage makes economic sense for BC
Jun 28, 2016
I was excited to see one of the two main political parties in BC — the BC NDP — promise to raise the minimum wage to $15 if elected next spring. This puts the idea of a $15 minimum wage squarely on the political agenda. I’ve long argued for the need to significantly increase BC’s poverty-level minimum wage… View Article
Why austerity is a problem for just transition and climate action
Jun 22, 2016
Last year we launched the Corporate Mapping Project, which is investigating the power and influence of the fossil fuel industry in Western Canada. One of the first things we did was hold a series of community meetings with environmental, Indigenous and labour groups to discuss the project. We did this in each of the three… View Article
BC has every reason to back CPP enhancement
Jun 20, 2016
Christy Clark could be a critical swing vote in shaping the future of the Canada Pension Plan, as federal officials meet with provincial premiers in Vancouver on Monday. If a stable, secure retirement for all Canadians is the aim, our leaders should commit to boldly expanding this bedrock national pension program. Instead, BC’s provincial government… View Article
Toxic landslides into the Peace River continue, add to fears about impacts of Site C and fracking
Jun 8, 2016
Toxic heavy metals, including arsenic, barium, cadmium, lithium and lead, are flowing unchecked into the Peace River following a series of unusual landslides that may be linked to natural gas industry fracking operations. The landslides began nearly two years ago and show no sign of stopping. So far, they have killed all fish along several… View Article
Access to information in BC is about to improve. Except there’s just this one little catch.
Jun 6, 2016
There was a fair amount of good news about Freedom of Information rules and a little bit of bad news last month. But the bad news was serious and you really have to wonder why the government would bother with it when the rest of the news was good. First for the good news. That… View Article
3 problems with the Fraser Institute’s alarmist report on health care spending
Jun 3, 2016
A new report from the Fraser Institute declares: “Health care spending by British Columbia’s government is unsustainable.” But watchers of Canadian politics know to take that declaration with generous heap of salt, since we hear cries of “out-of-control health care spending” like clockwork from certain quarters (followed by calls for privatized, for-profit care). In fact,… View Article
Why American doctors are calling for Canadian-style medicare
Jun 3, 2016
In a dramatic show of physician support for deep health care reform in the U.S., more than 2,200 physician leaders have signed a “Physician’s Proposal” calling for sweeping change. The proposal, published May 5 2016 in the American Journal of Public Health, calls for the creation of a publicly financed, single-payer, national health program to… View Article
How much does tax avoidance damage the public good? Even more than you think.
May 31, 2016
A string of revelations about tax avoidance have made headlines in recent months, from the Panama Papers, to KPMG Canada’s tax shelter business, to a local incident involving a UBC Board member who resigned after losing a tax avoidance case in BC Supreme Court. These revelations have fuelled a mix of outrage and cynicism about… View Article
Injured workers with chronic pain: the serious human costs of the WorkSafeBC system
May 30, 2016
I have been a specialist in physical medicine and rehabilitation for over 30 years. A significant portion of my practice involves injured workers who have developed chronic pain and have been denied compensation by WorkSafeBC (WCB). Workers with injuries that heal in weeks or a few months are usually treated well by WCB and get… View Article
BC’s public finances and the art of the possible
May 27, 2016
We sit less than a year away from the next provincial election in BC, and the legislature has now closed its doors for the summer. It’s a good time to reflect on an important, big-picture question: what kind of path are we on in this province when it comes to public policy? While recent economic… View Article
Asbestos-caused disease increasing in Canada, and many victims are women
May 25, 2016
For more than a century, it has been known that asbestos causes disease and death. But the asbestos industry suppressed scientific evidence, created lobby organizations and hi-jacked public policy. Canadians, and people around the world, have paid the price with their lives. The economic costs have also been enormous, with billions of dollars spent on… View Article
BC government: climate leader or climate outlaw?
May 24, 2016
At both the Paris climate negotiations last November and the recent federal-provincial climate meetings, Premier Christy Clark was keen to position British Columbia as a climate leader. There may indeed have been a short window during the 2008-2010 period when BC could legitimately (albeit arguably) make such a claim; when the province introduced the carbon… View Article
Early childhood report a distraction from what really needs to be done
May 20, 2016
The long-awaited report on the consultations by the Provincial Office for the Early Years (POEY) about early childhood planning in BC was released on Wednesday. This review, nearly a year in the making, looked at the meager early years community planning dollars allocated by the Ministry for Children and Family Development through the Children First and Success… View Article
Affordable housing and its discontents
May 19, 2016
The public and media response to my new study on affordable housing exceeded expectations. I anticipated some really strong pushback against my proposals, because they’re pretty radical in today’s context where private sector development is taken for granted, and global capital flows into local real estate go largely unquestioned. By and large, the report was covered… View Article
Food security in BC? Don’t count on it.
May 19, 2016
If California’s farmers ever run out of the water needed to irrigate their crops, we’ll be in for a rude awakening. With 70 per cent of British Columbia’s imported fruits and vegetables coming from the sunny US state, any climatic disaster there would almost certainly result in dramatic run-ups in food prices here. Our elected leaders… View Article