Archive
Need for a Regional Police Force
Jan 3, 2013
Creating a Vancouver region police force is at least one recommendation of the Missing Women Inquiry that should be put into effect as soon as possible. This will be difficult, mainly because the RCMP, with a 20 year contract that was put in place last March, is not going to be easily dislodged from the… View Article
Are tax havens robbing the government of revenue from P3s? Nobody seems to care
Jan 2, 2013
When British Columbia sets up public private partnerships (P3s) to let the private sector operate hospitals, roads and bridges, one of the considerations is taxes. However, when down the road ownership of the P3 private operator gets moved to a tax haven, it appears there is no subsequent examination of the impact on provincial revenues…. View Article
Letter: Continue LiveSmartBC Energy Incentive Program
Dec 19, 2012
My letter to Christy Clark, Premier of BC; Rich Colman, Ministry of Energy and Mines; Mike de Jong, Ministry of Finance; Terry Lake, Minister of Environment; Adrian Dix, Leader of the Opposition; John Horgan, Official Opposition House Leader and Opposition Critic for Energy, Mines and Petroleum Resources; Rob Fleming, Opposition Critic for Environment: I am a writing as an economist and lead… View Article
Marc’s Letter from 2040
Dec 14, 2012
The following comes from a short talk on a vision for a zero-carbon BC that I gave at a couple events this Fall. Many have asked for the text so I’ve posted it here, and we may try and turn it into a video. That said, I have been reluctant to do so up to… View Article
Polling on taxes – response to a critic
Dec 11, 2012
On November 29, the CCPA released an opinion research study led by myself and Randy Galawan called Beyond the 1%: What British Columbians think about taxes, inequality and public services. The study involved an extensive online survey (poll) of a broad sample of British Columbians, conducted by Environics Research, and nine group interviews held in… View Article
State of the BC Economy
Dec 4, 2012
As we close out 2012, BC finds itself in some precarious economic waters. To recap, a massive housing bubble that built up through the naughties (2000s) finally burst in 2008, feeding a financial crisis, as extremely loose (some would say fraudulent) lending practices pushed housing prices up to spectacular, never-seen-before levels, and created a plague… View Article
British Columbians are ready for a thoughtful conversation about taxes, inequality, public services
Dec 4, 2012
An oped in today’s Vancouver Sun, outlining key lessons from CCPA opinion research released last week: Beyond the 1%: What British Columbians think about taxes, inequality and public services. British Columbians ready for a thoughtful talk about taxes A growing consensus that extreme inequality is as much an economic problem as it is a moral… View Article
BC’s Other Deficits
Nov 28, 2012
The release of the BC Budget Second Quarterly report notes an increase in the projected budget deficit to $1.5 billion, up from $1.1 billion when the beans were first counted back in September. The growing deficit, amid a soft economy, is bound to get plenty of media attention. But this blog post is not about… View Article
BC is giving away its natural gas
Nov 21, 2012
In September, when the BC government tabled its First Quarterly Report on the BC Budget the big story was on plummeting natural gas royalties, which means cuts to public services in order to keep the budget balance in check. As the update states on page 6: The deterioration in natural gas royalty revenue is the main… View Article
England’s serious debate about living wages
Nov 8, 2012
I was in London for the last week and I was amazed to see what a big issue the idea of paying people a living wage has become there. The living wage, as opposed to the minimum wage, is based on what a family needs to have the essentials of life. Last week a KPMG… View Article
HST vs MSP: why are only some increases revolting?
Nov 3, 2012
Vaughn Palmer had an interesting piece in the Vancouver Sun yesterday. In a piece entitled “Dix agenda bows to post-HST reality,” Palmer writes that the NDP, if elected next May, will be forced to keep its tax increases modest, and that this is the legacy of the HST battle that raged after the last election:… View Article
Will Frankenstorm put climate change back on the political radar?
Oct 30, 2012
In recent years the world has experienced a sequence of climate-change-related disasters. Hurricane Sandy comes on top of massive drought through the summer that has led to 40% loss of American corn and other grain crops, raging wildfires in the southeast US, tornados and derechos, etc – and that is just the US. Check out this extreme weather… View Article
Imbalance in residential tenancy rights enforcement in BC
Oct 25, 2012
Yesterday some media outlets reported that the Residential Tenancy Branch has conditionally waived the first (and to my knowledge only) administrative penalty it has issued. BC’s Residential Tenancy Act was amended in 2006 to allow the Branch to issue administrative penalties, essentially monetary fines, against landlords or tenants that contravene the Act or repeatedly ignore… View Article
BC’s Natural Gas Strategy nothing more than a fairy tale
Oct 21, 2012
I have an oped in Saturday’s Vancouver Sun. The editor wanted me to focus on the claims of economic gains for BC, so the piece ended up being a complementary piece to the Behind the Numbers report on GHG emissions and the Natural Gas Strategy. The title was his choice not my own, but I… View Article
Plan for $10 a day child care striking a chord with British Columbians
Oct 15, 2012
More than thirty years ago, the women’s movement put child care on the public agenda. And while there have been important successes along the way, it can get depressing for grandmothers like me to see so little political progress. Parent fees are too high, staff wages are too low, there are nowhere near enough spaces… View Article
BC government non-response to study on how Natural Gas Strategy breaks BC’s GHG law
Oct 11, 2012
Since my report on how BC’s legislated GHG targets are being compromised by the 2012 Natural Gas Strategy, I’ve been keenly interested to see how the government would respond. The report prompted a story in today’s Metro news, but the reporter was unable to get a response from the government by deadline. Then belatedly she… View Article
Is BC breaking its GHG law by pursuing natural gas development?
Oct 10, 2012
Today we released a new report by yours truly, BC’s Legislated Greenhouse Gas Targets vs Natural Gas Development: The Good, The Bad and the Ugly. It was just five years ago that BC brought in the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Targets Act, a signal that BC was serious about climate action. The Act calls for a 33% cut in emissions by… View Article
Time to Rethink The Way We Fund Higher Education
Oct 9, 2012
This September, like every year, a new group of high school graduates headed to college or university to pursue higher education. But today’s generation of students is in for a very different experience from the ones their parents had. On campuses across the country shiny new buildings are popping up, bearing corporate logos or the… View Article
The importance of culture in big decisions
Oct 6, 2012
I sometimes think we underestimate the difference in culture between the various regions of Canada. I was reminded of that last month at a meeting of the Union of BC Municipalities. The UBCM always has separate forums for local governments of various sizes. I always make a point of attending the Electoral Areas Directors’ Forum…. View Article
Will a flu shot keep you healthy? (hint: probably not)
Oct 2, 2012
BC’s Provincial Health Officer Dr Perry Kendall announced in August that BC will be adopting a policy mandating flu shots for health care workers. Or they have to wear masks. This is likely the most aggressive flu prevention policy in Canada, one which could set the trend for the rest of the country. But Dr… View Article