Posts by Marc Lee

About Marc Lee

Marc Lee is a Senior Economist at the CCPA’s BC Office. In addition to tracking federal and provincial budgets and economic trends, Marc has published on a range of topics from poverty and inequality to globalization and international trade to public services and regulation. Marc is Co-Director of the Climate Justice Project, a research partnership with UBC's School of Community and Regional Planning that examines the links between climate change policies and social justice. Follow Marc on Twitter

Still so far from home: An update on BC’s 114,000 homes promise

Feb 10, 2023

By Marc Lee

There is a huge opportunity for the BC government, under new leadership, to address housing affordability by making major investments in non-market housing. A growing number of commentators have recognized that the market alone cannot solve BC’s housing problem, particularly for low- to middle-income households. Major investments in non-market housing could include a much larger… View Article

Spending What It Takes: Transformational climate investments for long-term prosperity in Canada

Feb 9, 2023

By Marc Lee, Caroline Brouillette and Hadrian Mertins-Kirkwood

The world is confronted with a slew of accelerating and converging crises, from climate change and biodiversity loss to energy insecurity, unaffordable living and rising inequality. In the face of these challenges, Canada must urgently and equitably decarbonize every sector of the economy both to contribute our fair share of the global climate effort and… View Article

Counting the Costs and Contradictions of the Trans Mountain Pipeline Expansion

Jan 23, 2023

By Marc Lee

Canada’s uneasy relationship between climate change and fossil fuel development was illustrated in November 2021 when seven atmospheric rivers hit southern BC. The “big one” starting on Nov. 13 led to massive flooding and landslides that crippled infrastructure and isolated the south coast from the rest of Canada.  Among the shutdowns was the Trans Mountain… View Article

Swimming against the tide

Dec 7, 2022

By Marc Lee

The challenge of higher interest rates and high household debt  The run-up of interest rates since March, led by the Bank of Canada in a bid to tame inflation, represents a substantial economic shock, one that is now pushing the country towards a recession. The bank’s overnight, or policy, interest rate is now at 4.25… View Article

Severe climate events cost BC economy billions more than reported estimates

Nov 30, 2022

By Marc Lee and Ben Parfitt

Caroline and Paul Mosterman have seen their share of unusual weather in four-plus decades of farming. But nothing comes remotely close to what they experienced in November 2021 when their Sumas Prairie farm was inundated by floodwater. Because the couple farmed on a floodplain, they had no flood insurance. So, when their farm buildings, blueberry… View Article

Capping oil and gas emissions: Production declines must be central to discussion

Aug 3, 2022

By Marc Lee

New federal proposals for an emissions cap on the oil and gas industry have begun a difficult and uncomfortable conversation, but one that finally gets to the heart of climate and energy policy in Canada. This post looks at the new proposals and how we got here: the evolution of Canadian climate policy since the… View Article

Anticlimactic and anti-climate: BC’s oil and gas royalty review

Jun 13, 2022

By Marc Lee

The BC government’s recently completed review of its royalty regime for oil and gas is both anticlimactic and anti-climate. After many months of public engagement—including an independent review, discussion paper, hundreds of public submissions, and a “what we heard” report—the public release is surprisingly brief and the regime remains steadfastly committed to growing oil and… View Article

The rising cost of living in BC: What’s going on and how should we respond?

Jun 9, 2022

By Marc Lee

The cost of living is going up and is putting strains on household finances. BC’s headline inflation rate hit 6.7% in April, measured by the Consumer Price Index (CPI).  Most of the policy response to rising inflation has emphasized the Bank of Canada raising interest rates to cool down the economy. However, much of the… View Article

Over a barrel: The case for a windfall profits tax to address surging gasoline prices

Mar 17, 2022

By Marc Lee

Do you support a windfall profits tax on oil and gas corporations? Let us know at the bottom of this article and sign up to receive e-mail updates! The recent surge in oil prices has caused pain at the pumps for many working people, further stoked inflation in the economy, and led to a rash… View Article

What happened to the 114,000 new affordable homes promised in BC?

Mar 11, 2022

By Marc Lee

During the 2017 election campaign as part of its plan to make life more affordable, the BC NDP promised if elected to “build 114,000 affordable rental, non-profit, co-op and owner-purchase housing units through partnerships over ten years. These homes will be a mix of housing for students, singles, seniors and families and will range from… View Article