Archive
How to Destroy a Good Poverty Line
Feb 17, 2012
[The following piece was authored by Michael Goldberg, Steve Kerstetter and Seth Klein] More than a decade ago, the federal and provincial governments started work on a new poverty line – the Market Basket Measure (MBM). After decades of distracting and divisive debates about poverty lines, Human Resources and Skills Development Canada crafted a methodology… View Article
“Mass staff replacements” in seniors’ care: impacts and solutions
Feb 16, 2012
Deep in the second volume of the BC Ombudsperson’s recently-released second report on seniors’ care, is an interesting and important discussion about large-scale staff replacements and other substantial changes at residential care facilities. Under the current legislative framework governing most care facilities for seniors, a facility operator must notify its regional medical health officer four months… View Article
Tax haven based company buys more BC P3s: British Auditor General questions profits in such transactions
Feb 14, 2012
Two of British Columbia’s public private partnership (P3) projects have changed hands again and once again the new owner resides in a European tax haven. In a separate but related development, last Friday Britain’s Auditor General released a report questioning very high level of profits for some British P3 projects partially generated by flipping the… View Article
Comparing two carbon bombs: LNG plants vs Enbridge pipeline
Feb 8, 2012
With the spotlight on the federal government’s aggressive push to export tar sands bitumen via the Enbridge Northern Gateway Pipeline to Kitimat, and from there by tanker on to China, the BC government reclaimed some attention on the energy file when it released its Natural Gas Strategy last week. With lots of glossy pages, but little detailed… View Article
Whatever happened to gender identity and expression?
Feb 5, 2012
A year ago this week, Bill C-389, An Act to amend the Canadian Human Rights Act and the Criminal Code (gender identity and gender expression), passed third reading in the House of Commons, receiving support from MPs from all political parties. So whatever happened to it? The private member’s bill, sponsored by former Burnaby-Douglas MP… View Article
After Self-Sufficiency — Will the Public or Private Interests be Served?
Feb 4, 2012
It was, I suppose, too much to expect the government to acknowledge that the self-sufficiency and insurance requirements it had imposed on BC Hydro was a serious mistake. So it was no surprise that they simply stated in their announcement paving the way for the powering of the proposed new LNG plants that the Campbell-era policies… View Article
Congratulations to Jagrup Brar: Time to raise welfare rates
Feb 3, 2012
On Tuesday, BC MLA Jagrup Brar wrapped up his month living on a basic welfare income of $610. He has returned to his family and a comfortable home. But we owe him great thanks. And kudos as well to the folks at Raise the Rates, who issued the challenge that MLAs try living on welfare… View Article
BC dead last on inequality: BC Stats
Jan 30, 2012
Last Friday BC Stats, the BC government’s statistical agency, weighed in on the topic of income inequality. The CCPA has talked about this subject for years and it is nice to see that BC Stats has not only acknowledged the problem but says that: Compared to other provinces, BC ranked dead last in 2009, with… View Article
Kevin Falcon’s narrow take on tax options
Jan 28, 2012
BC Finance Minister Kevin Falcon says he is keen to take a fresh look at the BC tax system. He is welcoming new ideas, and he even wants your opinion. He has struck an “expert” panel to review BC’s tax regime, and in early January the government launched an online tool that the public can… View Article
Odious profits and the Enbridge pipeline
Jan 27, 2012
Two obvious but generally unstated details about the Enbridge Northern Gateway Pipeline are climate change and that oil and gas companies stand to make mega-profits. An honest appraisal of the project would be something like, “yes, putting in the pipeline will facilitate even more greenhouse gas emissions from the Alberta oil sands, but our buddies… View Article
Breaking down financial barriers to higher education is more affordable than you think
Jan 25, 2012
In a new report released today by the CCPA, I revisit the important question of who really pays for university education. Convention wisdom has it that the public heavily subsidizes post-secondary education. The illusion of a subsidy comes from the fact that tuition fees, high as they are, don’t cover the entire cost of education…. View Article
Fossil fuel lobbyists: the real radicals
Jan 25, 2012
Most of the fossil fuel lobby’s arguments against its opponents should be reversed. Consider: Who are the real ‘radicals’ – those working for a sustainable climate and environment – or those who promote carbon-bombing the atmosphere, making us all guinea pigs in one of history’s most reckless experiments? Who are the real hypocrites – those… View Article
Top 10 Reasons for Upper-Income Tax Increases
Jan 17, 2012
Some feel we shouldn’t increase taxes on upper-income folks. After all, people know best how to spend their money, whereas the government will only waste it on needless activities. Well then, I humbly submit the following Top 10 list of reasons for upper-income tax increases (in descending order). #10: Ridiculous real estate. Check out Vancouver’s… View Article
A prescription for health care reform: think integration & collaboration
Jan 16, 2012
This morning the CCPA released a new report (co-authored by yours truly) that looks at the thorny issue of health care reform in BC and identifies some practical, evidence-based strategies that have been successful in improving quality of care and controlling costs in other jurisdictions. The paper comes out at a time when all Canadian… View Article
New Brunswick Auditor General latest to blast public private partnerships
Jan 15, 2012
One more provincial Auditor General has come out swinging at public private partnerships (P3s). Last week New Brunswick’s AG released a report on two P3 schools that had been announced by the NB government in 2008. New Brunswick Auditor General Kim MacPherson joins public auditors in Nova Scotia, Quebec, Ontario, and British Columbia who have… View Article
Making health care funding sustainable
Jan 13, 2012
The BC Legislature’s Select Standing Committee on Health is currently investigating the sustainability of BC’s health care system (with a focus on demographic / aging trends), and asked for written submissions of peer-reviewed studies on the subject. Here’s what I just submitted: Submission to the BC Legislature’s Select Standing Committee on Health From: Seth Klein,… View Article
Who’s really “skewing” the pipeline debate?
Jan 11, 2012
Apparently the Harper government and its echo chamber in the blogosphere (e.g. Vivian Krause) think that philanthropic funding of environmental groups is “skewing” the debate on the northern pipeline project. Presumably they would like to return to a more “normal” debate. You know, one disproportionately influenced by well-heeled corporate-funded market fundamentalist think tanks and pseudo-grassroots… View Article
The BC government could start with local purchasing to build jobs in our communities
Jan 3, 2012
The BC government has been heavily promoting its “jobs plan” over the last week on television, radio and on the internet. On twitter they invited people to come on line to give their ideas about what could be done to promote more jobs in communities. But there is one idea to promote jobs in communities… View Article
Tackling inequality means rethinking upper-income tax rates
Dec 23, 2011
2011 was the year rising inequality finally exploded into the mainstream discourse. A few year-end reading recommendations: Victoria Times-Colonist editorial writer Paul Willcocks wrote a terrific piece on the subject (you can find it here); and similarly, a group of UBC economists (including CCPA research associate David Green) authored a series on inequality for the… View Article
Reflections on the year past and the year to come: Inequality explodes into the public discourse
Dec 22, 2011
If this past year — marked by the Arab Spring and the fall arrival of the Occupy movement — has taught us anything, it is that we never know when historic moments come. And when they do, that which seemed political impossible is suddenly in play. Many of us found the explosion of the Occupy… View Article