Archive
Addressing the racism of the Temporary Foreign Worker Program
Sep 2, 2024
There is renewed attention on Canada’s Temporary Foreign Worker Program (TFWP) in the wake of the recent damning report from the UN Special Rapporteur on Contemporary Forms of Slavery that calls the program “a breeding ground for contemporary forms of slavery.” Yet, the central critiques and recommendations made in the UN report are being ignored… View Article
Cedar LNG: Chronicles of a petro-state in the age of climate change
Jul 31, 2024
A final investment decision in June 2024 by Cedar LNG highlights the challenges and contradictions of BC’s climate and energy policies. For the BC government, this is the model industrial project: it creates jobs and development in the North, has a major Indigenous partner in the Haisla Nation and will meet the low-emissions target established… View Article
People in poverty need policy solutions, not a report card
Jul 29, 2024
Last week, the BC Government released the first update to the Poverty Reduction Strategy since the inaugural plan in 2019. As organizations long committed to ending poverty in BC, we hoped to see plans for how the government would achieve the targets that they set in the spring—reducing the overall poverty rate in the province… View Article
BC’s tax system has become fairer since 2017, richest 1% paying more
Jul 23, 2024
Since 2017, the vast majority of BC households are paying a smaller share of their income in provincial taxes, while the top 1% is paying more…. View Article
Announcing CCPA–BC’s 2024 Gala keynote speaker: Dr. Vandana Shiva
Jul 13, 2024
On Thursday, November 7th, the CCPA–BC Gala returns, and we couldn’t be more excited to announce this year’s keynote speaker: Dr. Vandana Shiva. She is a world-renowned environmental activist, intellectual and feminist who has worked in a wide range of fields inspiring change globally—particularly around issues of food, agriculture, bioethics and genetic engineering…. View Article
How BC’s oil and gas industry sidestepped carbon pricing
Jun 27, 2024
When BC first introduced a carbon tax in 2008 the point was to apply it to all emissions causing climate change, but start at a low rate and increase it over time. Yet, as the carbon tax has increased for households at the gas pump and to heat homes, large industrial players—including the oil and… View Article
Canada’s broken promises to migrant care workers
Jun 18, 2024
On June 3, 2024, Immigration Minister Marc Miller announced new migrant care worker pilot programs, which take important steps to address some of the concerns raised by workers and advocates. Unfortunately, Canada has a long track record of broken promises to migrant care workers and it is not clear how the new pilot programs would… View Article
Trapped in the wage gap
May 30, 2024
On June 1, BC’s minimum wage is going up to $17.40 per hour. Despite this welcome pay raise for the 240,000 lowest-paid workers in the province, the minimum wage remains over $3 per hour lower than the lowest living wage in BC ($20.64 in Dawson Creek). In BC’s largest cities, Metro Vancouver and Greater Victoria,… View Article
Time to scale up: next steps for non-market housing in BC
May 7, 2024
Despite some positive policy moves, BC is still not meeting the demands of the housing crisis. We need more non-market housing in BC now…. View Article
Bolder moves needed for taxing the rich
May 1, 2024
Even with the 2024 change, the income from buying and selling assets will be taxed less than from working. … View Article
The case for expanding democratic employee ownership in Canada
Apr 29, 2024
Workers lack democratic rights in the corporations and institutions that govern their work lives. As we find ourselves in an era of high inequality the question of ‘why shouldn’t working people be the owners and beneficiaries of the fruits of their labour?’ becomes timely and necessary. Read this research report on what it’d take to make democratic employee ownership a reality in Canada…. View Article
Thanks for a great ride
Apr 26, 2024
Twenty years ago, an insect attack of biblical proportions in British Columbia’s forests became a hot-button topic. Thanks to unusually warm winters (guess why), mountain pine beetles exploded in number in the province’s interior forests killing millions upon millions of lodgepole pine trees. The provincial government responded by approving huge increases in logging so that… View Article
As wood pellet exports to Japan surge, BC’s primary forests feel the strain
Apr 24, 2024
In the land of the rising sun, the light of a setting sun glints so brightly on the shiny metal piping of Renova’s Ishinomaki Hibarino power plant that you have to shield your eyes. Located near the city of Sendai, north of Tokyo, the new thermal electricity plant is one of several in Japan that… View Article
Beyond Recovery: A paradox in COVID-19 pandemic recovery | Panel discussion
Apr 23, 2024
This year, the CCPA–BC Office, in collaboration with SFU Faculty of Health Science researchers and UNITE HERE Local 40, published ‘A paradox in COVID-19 pandemic recovery: Increased precarity of women hotel workers in British Columbia’. A panel discussion held on April 10 featured the report’s authors and hotel industry workers. They explored the report’s findings,… View Article
Why BC needs sectoral bargaining now
Apr 4, 2024
Too many BC workers lack meaningful access to the benefits of collective bargaining and the failure of our labour laws to keep up with the evolving nature of work is a key culprit…. View Article
Time for a new public transit investment plan
Mar 28, 2024
Imagine being able to get from almost anywhere in BC to anywhere else on public transit, as one might in Europe or Asia. Or visitors landing at Vancouver airport and being able to get seamlessly around the province without the need to rent a car. Whether it’s dealing with bumper-to-bumper congestion in Metro Vancouver or… View Article
A return to cuts would be disastrous for BC and its economy
Mar 27, 2024
Under-investment in public services and infrastructure not only hurts BC families, it also hurts our economy. With the BC government projecting deficits in the latest provincial budget, the corporate lobby is trying to raise alarm bells about spending. But a return to the cuts of the past would be disastrous for BC. The provincial BC… View Article
Budget fails to fund enough supports for newcomers to BC
Mar 26, 2024
New immigrants, temporary foreign workers and international students are bearing the brunt of the blame for the housing crisis and strain on public services where the provincial budget is failing to keep up with demand…. View Article
Evaluating BC Budget 2024’s commitments to racial equity
Mar 21, 2024
Poverty reduction is a crucial element to advancing racial equity in BC, but the province’s new targets for reducing overall poverty are insufficiently ambitious and lack the urgency needed to effect meaningful change…. View Article
Leaked data reveals new threat to BC’s old growth forests
Mar 7, 2024
BREAKING: officials in the Ministry of Forests have been working on a map that radically departs from the recommendations of a panel appointed by the provincial government to advise it on how to protect British Columbia’s imperiled old growth forests…. View Article