Archive
What’s the Canada-EU trade deal all about?
Nov 4, 2013
Chances are, you’ve heard about the Canada-EU trade deal. It’s hard to miss, what with the federal government hard at work staging photo-ops and events across the country, promoting the deal as a major win. The official sales pitch focuses on the trade aspects of the deal – lowering or eliminating tariffs between Canada and… View Article
Global carbon budget is a harsh reality check for Canadian investors
Oct 30, 2013
The recent report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) should be a wake-up call for Canada. With a development model based on ever more fossil fuel extraction, Canada’s economy and financial markets are on a collision course with the urgent need for global climate action. The IPCC, for the first time, stated an… View Article
My Welfare Food Challenge: Day 7 – The End
Oct 22, 2013
Well, I’ve made it to the end of my week eating only what I could buy for $26. But eating the same thing for breakfast, lunch and dinner for seven days is no damn fun. I can’t wait to eat something different and fresh. Did a final weigh-in this morning. I lost 4-5 lbs. this… View Article
LNG: BC’s Quest for a New Staple Industry
Oct 21, 2013
I have a post as part of a new series from the Progressive Economics Forum celebrating 50 years of Mel Watkins’ publication of “A Staple Theory of Economic Growth.” Watkins’ piece follows the insight of Harold Innis to develop an understanding of economic growth uniquely rooted in the Canadian experience. The series begins with an… View Article
My welfare food challenge: Day 6
Oct 21, 2013
I can see now that I’m going to make it to the end of this week (last year, a number of people who took the challenge didn’t make it). With my $26 I was able to purchase sufficient quantity, but not great nutrition. I’ve had no fresh or leafy green veggies, and only one kind… View Article
My welfare challenge: Days 4 and 5
Oct 20, 2013
Fascinating to see all the comments on these blog posts. I want to highlight Dale’s comments in response to my Day 3 post in particular. Some may read these posts and point out that people with a recognized disability (those with PWD status in our welfare system) receive marginally more on welfare (a single person… View Article
My welfare food challenge: Day 3
Oct 18, 2013
It is very boring eating the same food every day – oatmeal, peanut butter sandwich, an apple, soup or pasta. No treats, no variety. My other observation is that living on this budget means you think about food all the time – When can I next eat? How will I make this last? Where will… View Article
My welfare food challenge: Day 2
Oct 17, 2013
Day 2, and I’ve already bent the rules. The battle against the cold is no going well, so I’m taking some cold medicine and drinking tea (which was not in my budget). Otherwise, still on the plan. For dinner last night I had some of the large soup I made in preparation (it’s actually pretty… View Article
Metro Vancouver needs to walk its “zero waste” talk
Oct 16, 2013
An oped published in the Vancouver Sun: When delegates attend Metro Vancouver’s Zero Waste conference on Wednesday, they will hear from innovators and big thinkers about how to radically redesign waste out of our economy. Ideas will be presented to aggressively reuse, repair and maintain what we consume, and for composting and recycling to keep… View Article
My welfare food challenge: Day 1
Oct 16, 2013
Today is Day 1 of my welfare food challenge, during which I will spend one week trying to eat on a total budget of $26. You can read more about the Welfare Food Challenge here. I’ve been researching and writing about welfare policy since the late 1990s (including a major 2008 study entitled Living on… View Article
Why the City of Vancouver should divest from fossil fuels
Oct 9, 2013
This is the text of remarks I made today to Vancouver city council on divestment. Earlier this year, Council requested that staff report back on how the city’s financial investments align with the city’s mission and values, and various ethical programs like the city’s purchasing policy and the greenest city initiative. So the meeting was… View Article
Time to redesign BC’s GHG policy
Oct 8, 2013
No matter where you stand on GHGs and climate change, one thing is very clear. British Columbia GHG policy is a mess. It is not just that GHG reduction targets were legislated without any credible plan to achieve them and, given our current industrial strategy, little prospect of doing so. It is the complete lack… View Article
IPCC: Time for a Global Carbon Budget
Sep 27, 2013
Political commitments on climate action, to the extent they exist, are usually pitched in terms of targets and timelines. BC, for example, has a legislated target of 33% below 2007 levels by 2020; Canada’s official target is a 17% reduction by 2020 relative to 2005 levels. Neither target will be met under status quo policy,… View Article
Stats Can rebuts CFIB on public sector sick leave
Sep 20, 2013
Yesterday Statistics Canada published a nice counterpoint to part of the relentless drumbeat against public employees by organizations like the Fraser Institute and the Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB). Last December the CFIB published a report noting the horrifying finding that when it came to sick, disability and personal days off, public sector workers… View Article
Deconstructing BC Hydro’s Rate Increase
Sep 14, 2013
When the government imposed its Energy Plan on BC Hydro it never bothered to estimate the costs (or for that matter the benefits) of what it hoped to achieve. Ardent supporters of that Plan, like my good friend Mark Jaccard, constructed scenarios under which it would make sense to force BC Hydro to buy more… View Article
Memo to Obama: Canada’s carbon problem IS the tar sands
Sep 10, 2013
Canada’s Harper-ment is getting increasingly desperate. The quest to double production out of the Alberta tar sands needs new pipelines (or rail). In recent months, we have seen new proposals for pipelines to the west and to the east, amid further delays of the KeystoneXL pipeline to the south. The success of US activists (environmentalists,… View Article
What the UBC rape chant scandal says about women in the Canadian economy
Sep 10, 2013
The news of UBC Sauder Business School students chanting about rape of underage girls during a FROSH week event has generated much outrage. As it should. While the chant might seem like an isolated incident, it is not. The recent rape chant scandals in UBC and in St Mary’s University in Halifax are evidence of… View Article
Are we undermining our schools by not investing enough in education?
Sep 8, 2013
This year’s back-to-school media coverage featured surprisingly little analysis on how our schools are doing. Not to say that articles about innovative approaches to help students stay alert, back-to-school parenting advice and school lunch ideas aren’t useful, but surely those could have been combined with more in-depth analysis of the challenges and opportunities facing our… View Article
BC Hydro’s Integrated Resource Plan and The Case Against Site C
Aug 27, 2013
It could have been me taking time off during the short Vancouver summer, or perhaps that the news release got dropped on the Friday before the August long weekend, but I totally missed the release of BC Hydro’s Integrated Resource Plan (IRP). It is an important document for the province, one that sets out the… View Article
A Misdirected Response to a Self-Inflicted Problem
Aug 26, 2013
The essence of BC Hydro’s Integrated Resource Plan (IRP) is straightforward. Maintain aggressive conservation targets and plan to build Site C as soon as possible in order to meet the forecast growth in British Columbia’s basic electricity requirements. As for LNG, the energy needed for the liquefaction process is expected to be met by the… View Article