Archive
New look, same nerds.
May 19, 2016
Hello readers and followers! As you can see, we have a brand new look thanks to our fine friends at Affinity Bridge. We had two goals with the redesign. First was just to get a bit more in step with the times. Goodbye narrow columns and small font — hello white space, pretty pictures and… View Article
How to make the Metro Vancouver living wage work for single parents
Apr 27, 2016
The living wage is designed to reflect the real costs of raising a family in a particular community. It’s based on a two-parent families with young children because most Canadian children live in two-parent families, but the goal is for the living wage to also meet the needs of different types of families throughout their life cycle, including single-parent families…. View Article
Time to rethink BC’s surgical waitlist strategy
Apr 26, 2016
By Andrew Longhurst, Marcy Cohen and Dr. Margaret McGregor Have you had to wait months for surgical consultation, let alone the surgery itself? If so, you’re not alone. British Columbians are waiting an unacceptable amount of time to receive the care they need. Since 2010, surgical wait times have increased significantly for key procedures, including… View Article
Pipelines vs Paris: Canada’s climate conundrum
Apr 21, 2016
The push for new pipelines to bring Alberta bitumen to “tidewater” is on, even as the ink is barely dry on the Paris Agreement, and its call to action on climate change. Alberta Premier Notley argues that “We’re not making a choice between the environment and the economy. We are building the economy.” For his part, Prime Minister… View Article
In Edinburgh, the public private partnership walls are falling. Seriously. Walls are falling.
Apr 20, 2016
If 17 schools were closed in Vancouver, or Edmonton or Regina, because parts of them were at risk of falling down and injuring children, do you think it might raise some questions about the way the schools were built? That is exactly what is happening in Edinburgh, Scotland. It all began in January 2016 when… View Article
A carbon tax comes to Alberta
Apr 19, 2016
Alberta’s 2016 Budget presents its plan to price carbon, in two parts: a new Carbon Levy applied to transportation and heating fuel, at $20 per tonne of CO2 (4.5 cents per litre at the pump) starting January 2017, rising to $30 (6.7 cents per litre) in 2018; and, changes to the Specified Gas Emitters Regulation (SGER) framework… View Article
What the new federal budget means for BC
Mar 23, 2016
At first glance, BC appears somewhat isolated from the economic challenges the rest of Canada is facing but there are a number of worrying signs. Nearly half of British Columbians see the economic conditions in BC as “poor” or “very poor.” The economy may be growing but prosperity is not broadly shared. Despite decent economic growth, poverty remains… View Article
The unintended consequences of massive hydro rate increases
Mar 22, 2016
The Province newspaper recently published an op-ed of mine that looked at one of the unintended consequences of our provincial government’s fixation on building the exceedingly expensive Site C hydroelectric dam. Even though actual construction of the dam has yet to begin, BC Hydro customers are already paying far more for electricity than they were just a… View Article
Create BC jobs by investing in desperately needed services
Mar 16, 2016
A few months ago, economist and CCPA research associate Jim Stanford gave a talk in Vancouver based on his newest book, Economics for Everyone: A Short Guide to the Economics of Capitalism. Of the many important insights that he discussed, perhaps the most significant concerned a problem that has afflicted British Columbia and most other… View Article
BC government’s spin cycle on LNG
Mar 15, 2016
Last year, we made freedom of information requests to the BC government about two CCPA-BC studies: A Clear Look at LNG by David Hughes (released May 26) and LNG and Employment in BC by myself (released July 28). Both reports poke holes in extravagant claims being made by the BC government about natural gas supplies, environmental impacts, and economic benefits of… View Article
From Paris to Vancouver: What happened at the First Ministers meeting on climate
Mar 4, 2016
Almost three months after the Paris Agreement was signed, Canada’s first ministers (the PM and premiers) met to launch a Canadian climate and energy strategy. Sort of. That was what was promised at the time of the December Paris conference, but in the lead-up to this week’s meeting efforts to lower expectations were well underway…. View Article
The Farmers’ Food Donation Tax Credit misses the mark in food security
Mar 3, 2016
On February 25 BC joined Ontario and Quebec in offering farmers a tax incentive for donating to food assistance programs, such as food banks or school meal programs. Promised in last month’s budget, the Farmers’ Food Donation Tax Credit provides individuals or businesses registered as farms a 25% credit on any donated animal or plant product grown, raised or… View Article
Don’t believe the hype on BC’s carbon tax
Mar 2, 2016
The other day, I saw two new examples of breathless praise for BC’s carbon tax, and how it has been wonderful for the province economically and environmentally. Here’s the New York Times: [T]he most important takeaway for American skeptics is that the policy basically worked as advertised. British Columbia’s economy did not collapse. In fact,… View Article
BC’s irresponsible budget
Mar 1, 2016
As noted in many recent newspaper articles and editorials, posts on this blog, and social media posts, BC’s 2016 budget reflected the short-sighted and unnecessary priority of the current government to pay down debt and “balance” the budget over meeting the pressing needs of British Columbians, particularly those with developmental, financial and social vulnerabilities. This… View Article
Reducing poverty and carbon emissions: lessons from Manitoba
Feb 26, 2016
I often get asked about alternatives to our fossil-fuelled status quo. In recent years, there have been many new projects that point to the way forward, that get beyond vague statements about reducing carbon emissions and boosting clean energy. Our CCPA-BC office held a conference last year to examine new approaches to good and green jobs…. View Article
Methane emissions from fracking: clean LNG’s dirty secret
Feb 25, 2016
The proposed Woodfibre LNG plant near Squamish is an example of what has been called “clean LNG” – that is, the plant will use grid electricity from BC Hydro to power the energy-intensive liquefaction process, instead of gas. This would reduce greenhouse gas emissions significantly for this one part of the supply chain. The Woodfibre… View Article
Petronas’ Pacific NorthWest LNG: profile of a carbon bomb
Feb 23, 2016
I submitted the following in response to a call by the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency for public comments on the February 2016 draft environmental assessment of the Pacific NorthWest LNG, also commonly known as the Petronas LNG project given the lead corporate proponent. (You can make a submission too). This submission is in regards to the Greenhouse Gas Emissions… View Article
Why not put some Metro Vancouver property transfer tax into infrastructure?
Feb 19, 2016
When it comes to revenue for the provincial government from property taxes in British Columbia, Metro Vancouver is such a cash cow we should be able to hear it say “moo.” The province gets revenue from property from two sources: the BC school tax and the property transfer tax. On Saturday, February 13 the Vancouver Sun… View Article
Five surreal moments in BC Finance Minister’s Q & A with journalists
Feb 17, 2016
OK, so we know what some of the problems are with the 2016 BC Budget. Economists have analyzed how empty it is of real measures to help British Columbians. But I’d also like to share a little bit about what it was like to sit and listen to the Finance Minister Mike de Jong’s Q… View Article
Housing budget? Not so much.
Feb 17, 2016
It was supposed to be the housing budget, with action to address a top issue facing the province. Today’s banner headline from The Globe and Mail (“Balanced BC budget aims to cool hot real estate market”) implies that they did take concrete measures. But if you read the budget, there is not much there relative… View Article