Archive
Some issues arising from the special advisor’s report on the Vancouver School Board
Jun 6, 2010
The special advisor appointed by the provincial government to look at the finances of the Vancouver School Board reported on Friday and a number of issues arise from the report. Before discussing these, however, people should be aware that in my day job I am a researcher for the Canadian Union of Public Employees which… View Article
‘Green’ Summer Reading
Jun 3, 2010
As I was wandering through the airport this spring I succumbed to my one true addiction: books. Yes, I know that a good environmentalist uses the local library, but I’m working on it….. Anyway, as always, I try to pick up something that I’ve read a review on or something that just jumps out at… View Article
View from the Top: Income Inequality in BC
Jun 2, 2010
A fascinating, and shocking, literature on the incomes at the very top of the distribution has emerged in recent years. Typically, Statistics Canada only reports income distributions for quintiles, or 20% groupings, and occasionally deciles, or 10% groupings. But new research based on tax filing has shown that the real action has been at the… View Article
Legislative review of FOI Act narrow and timid
Jun 1, 2010
A legislative committee reviewing BC’s Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act reported on May 31st and the results were disappointing. They certainly did not live up to the previous legislative review in 2004. Back then government backbenchers on the Committee made recommendations leaders of the government didn’t like. The 2004 Committee made recommendations… View Article
Child poverty: How does BC stack up against those provinces with a plan?
May 29, 2010
A week ago, I appeared before the BC Legislature’s Standing Committee on Children and Youth. The committee, to its credit, had decided to spend a day hearing witnesses on the subject of child poverty, and what BC could do to make a difference. Among the points I raised with the committee: too often this issue… View Article
Early indicators of how the recession has hit BC’s poor
May 29, 2010
Just wanted to draw readers’ attention to a great op-ed piece in The Province newspaper this past Thursday: “Recession slammed BC’s poor; and it’s not over,” by Chandra Pasma. Chandra is a policy analyst with Citizens for Public Justice (a faith-based social justice group), and author of a recent report entitled Bearing the Brunt: How… View Article
Buying off industry
May 27, 2010
At first glance, the response of the forest sector and other large energy users to the province’s Clean Energy Act was surprising. Here is an Act that will force BC Hydro to waste literally billions of dollars to create an artificial demand for private power. It will without question drive up BC Hydro’s rates far more… View Article
Privacy, Facebook and a New Information and Privacy Commissioner
May 24, 2010
Sometimes personal and policy issues collide or at least slide in side-by-side. That happened for me when the BC Legislature appointed Elizabeth Denham as the province’s new Information and Privacy Commissioner on May 6th. Denham’s biography shows she has a strong background in privacy issues. From 2003 to 2007 she worked on private sector privacy… View Article
Summer reading: two experts on privatization
May 20, 2010
Policy Note has asked CCPA Research Associates who contribute to the blog to suggest some ideas for summer reading. I am going to cheat a bit by suggesting two books. I am going to cheat even more by admitting I haven’t read one of them. I spend a lot of my time reading and writing… View Article
The job market may be recovering but some jobs are not coming back
May 18, 2010
A recent article in The New York Times illustrates this point with the story of an unemployed administrative assistant in her 50s, who has not been able to find a job for over two years after being laid off. As the journalist explains, her difficulties are likely not the result of age discrimination, the weak… View Article
Problems for the South Fraser Perimeter Road P3?
May 12, 2010
There are some interesting recent developments on the South Fraser Perimeter Road (SFPR) public private partnership project. A press release issued Friday afternoon announced the successful bidder in response to a Requests for Proposal. The results may not be what we were led to expect. The SFPR project is part of the Province’s Gateway project… View Article
Living Wage 2010
May 4, 2010
This morning CCPA-BC released a new study with First Call: BC Child and Youth Advocacy Coalition, and the Metro Vancouver Living Wage for Families Campaign. Working for a Living Wage 2010: Making Paid Work Meet Basic Family Needs in Metro Vancouver updates the first Metro Vancouver calculation published in 2008. The living wage calculation includes… View Article
BC opens door to private jails
May 2, 2010
The BC government has taken the next step down the privatization road by opening the door to private prisons. On April 28th Partnerships BC posted a request for qualification on the BC Bid web site for a public private partnership (P3) for the Surrey Pretrial Centre. You need to register with Bid BC to see… View Article
Job creation alone will not solve BC’s poverty problem
Apr 29, 2010
Whenever he’s confronted with questions about BC’s record high child poverty rates or by the growing income inequality in the province, our Premier maintains that the best social policy is a job. In fact, reducing the costs of doing business in BC seems to be this government’s chief economic strategy. Consider the HST, for example,… View Article
The Clean Energy Act – adding insult to injury
Apr 29, 2010
I don’t follow the provincial legislature closely enough to judge whether the proposed Clean Energy Act is the worst legislation the Liberals have introduced since first being elected, but it has to be a front runner. The first objective listed in the Act is the government’s misdirected requirement for BC Hydro to be self-sufficient, with all of… View Article
Reforestation crisis, Ministry of Forests job cuts: op eds by the CCPA and allies
Apr 28, 2010
The coalition of environmental groups and unions that published Managing BC’s Forests for a Cooler Planet in January continues to work together. Over the past week, we’ve had op eds published in the Victoria Times Colonist and the Vancouver Sun. George Heyman, executive director of Sierra Club BC, and I co-authored Little left to celebrate… View Article
Living Wage: Congratulations to New Westminster
Apr 27, 2010
Some great news to share on the living wage front. Last night (April 26), New Westminster City Council voted unanimously to adopt the first municipal Living Wage policy in Canada. They have used the broad definition of the family living wage, developed two years ago by CCPA, First Call and the Victoria Community Council (meaning,… View Article
B.C. Government: Truest of the Trade True Believers
Apr 20, 2010
Alone amongst provinces, only B.C. failed to exempt even a single municipality or provincial agency from the recent Canada/U.S. Procurement Agreement…. View Article
Have taxes changed all that much over the past half century?
Apr 20, 2010
Yesterday, the Fraser Institute released its Consumer Tax Index report, which claims to show that the average Canadian family’s tax bill has increased by a whopping 1,624% since 1961. There are a lot of things wrong with Fraser Institute’s math. Here are just a few of them. To begin with, the numbers should have been… View Article
It’s not just about size: what makes up our tax bill matters
Apr 20, 2010
The Fraser Institute and the CCPA do not typically see eye to eye, but they seem to agree that personal income taxes take up a relatively small fraction of the average tax bill — about 13 – 14%. According to the Fraser Institute’s recent report on the average Canadian family’s tax bill, the average family… View Article