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

It’s 2021: Time to get serious about BC’s carbon emissions

Jan 7, 2021

By Marc Lee

In December 2020, the BC government released its first Climate Change Accountability Report, the result of 2019 legislation aimed at improving the reporting and oversight of climate action in BC. The report lacks accountability in one important respect: it is not an independent assessment and reads like previous BC government reports on climate action that… View Article

Just transition planning for a managed wind-down of fossil fuels in BC

Dec 16, 2020

By Marc Lee and Seth Klein

Resource development has long been central to BC’s economy. But commodity prices swing, industries consolidate and patterns of demand change over time. When they do, resource industry workers are often left holding the bag. The price is often much more than just involuntary unemployment for laid-off workers, but also includes mental illness, increases in domestic… View Article

New federal climate plan hindered by commitment to fossil fuel production

Dec 15, 2020

By Marc Lee and Hadrian Mertins-Kirkwood

Five years after the negotiation of the Paris agreement, the federal government is finally starting to walk the talk on climate change. Canada’s updated climate action plan, released December 11, is the most serious piece of climate policy we’ve yet seen from this government. It comes alongside new measures announced by 70 other governments as… View Article

Why now is the time to reform BC’s oil and gas royalties

Dec 8, 2020

By Marc Lee and Seth Klein

The oil and gas royalty regime in British Columbia needs a major overhaul. The re-elected NDP promised during the election campaign to review oil and gas royalties and credits. In the context of a climate emergency the need for a managed wind-down is urgent. Despite “natural” gas being a finite greenhouse-gas-generating fossil fuel, the royalty… View Article

Towards a managed wind-down: the conversation we need to have

Nov 26, 2020

By Marc Lee and Seth Klein

An enduring lesson from COVID-19 is that where there’s a will there’s a way. Faced with a pandemic, governments have risen to the challenge and made profound changes that would have seemed impossible mere months before. We now need to shift this out-of-the-box thinking to the existential threat posed by climate change. The need to… View Article

Why a PST cut is a bad idea and directions for reform: A backgrounder on consumption taxation in BC

Oct 5, 2020

By Marc Lee

The BC Liberals have made a bold policy announcement that appears to be the centrepiece of their campaign: a one-year rollback of the 7% Provincial Sales Tax (PST), followed by  a reduction to 3% until the COVID-19 pandemic is over (although in reality there would be strong pressure to stay at the lower rate). This… View Article

Vancouver’s Secured Rental Policy and the battle over density

Sep 28, 2020

By Marc Lee

In North American cities with growing populations and economies, a similar political story on housing affordability is playing out. Calls to permit more dense housing supply—also known as upzoning or changes to land use regulations to allow multi-unit buildings on “single-family” detached lots—pit older, wealthier homeowners against younger, less affluent, renters who feel shut out… View Article

Now is not the time to panic over the federal debt

Sep 22, 2020

By Marc Lee

Public policy in Canada remains haunted by large deficits that prevailed in the 1980s and early 1990s. With COVID-19 economic response pushing the federal deficit to an estimated $343 billion in 2020/21, some pundits are starting to beat the deficit panic drum again.  Don’t let big numbers scare you. Here’s why we shouldn’t be worried. … View Article

BC’s housing crisis during the pandemic: A snapshot

Jul 28, 2020

By Alex Hemingway, Shannon Daub and Marc Lee

BC has long been in a housing crisis, and the pandemic economy we are currently living in has further put the squeeze on renters in particular. To shed light on the housing situation during this crisis, we draw on new data from a comprehensive survey of 2,289 residents across the province, conducted online by McAllister… View Article

How are British Columbians doing: COVID-19 economic security & government supports

Jul 28, 2020

By Marc Lee, Shannon Daub and Alex Hemingway

The economic impact of the shutdown of large parts of BC’s economy in response to COVID-19 has reflected a sharp recession: a massive and rapid increase in involuntary unemployment, including layoffs, job losses and reduced hours; reduced household and business income and expenditure; closures (whether mandated or not) or greatly reduced capacity of many retail… View Article