Economy

How big is BC’s budget surplus?

Jun 21, 2017
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Some recent media commentary has taken to flights of fantasy by assuming that large personal tax increases would be needed to fund the policies contained in the NDP and Greens’ Supply and Confidence Agreement. The assumption that major tax increases would be required ignores a key starting point: large surpluses are projected in this budget… View Article

Brace yourself for more stale arguments on taxes

Jun 20, 2017
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What will happen if a new BC government raises taxes on rich individuals and corporations as the NDP promised in its election platform? If years of finger-wagging from pundits and the business lobby can be believed, you might assume the sky will come crashing down—right onto the BC economy. It’s an argument that’s been hammered… View Article

Don’t be fooled by the Fraser Institute’s fearmongering on taxes

Jun 14, 2017
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The latest “Alert” from the Fraser Institute hits a new low in misrepresenting reality. The article claims to analyze the impact of proposed NDP-Green tax changes on BC families but their so-called “analysis” is pure fiction. In their election platform, the NDP proposed raising taxes for the wealthiest British Columbians and for large corporations as… View Article

A Dam Big Problem: Regulatory breakdown as fracking companies in BC’s northeast build dozens of unauthorized dams

May 3, 2017
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A subsidiary of Petronas, the Malaysian state-owned petro giant courted by the BC government, has built at least 16 unauthorized dams in northern BC to trap hundreds of millions of gallons of water used in its controversial fracking operations. The 16 dams are among “dozens” that have been built by Petronas and other companies without… View Article

The incredible shrinking role of government in BC

Apr 25, 2017
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As BC’s political parties lay out their election platforms, media pundits tend to focus on the flurry of spending promises. But all this attention on spending makes it easy to forget that we’ve actually witnessed an incredible shrinking of government’s role in BC over the past 15 years. Unlike the strange mist that shrinks Scott… View Article

Manitoba opens door to public sector secrecy as Ottawa calls for increase in P3 projects

Mar 22, 2017
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Wednesday’s federal Budget reaffirms the Canadian Government’s commitment to its promised “Canada Infrastructure Bank.” This opens the door to having corporations deliver public infrastructure through public private partnerships which is a controversial move. In the words of one writer: In other words, public-private partnerships are sort of like credit cards: You get the shiny thing… View Article

BC Budget 2017: $600 million in tax breaks for business

Mar 17, 2017
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Does the BC business sector need a tax cut? Not so much. But Budget 2017 promises to give business over $600 million in additional annual tax breaks nonetheless. That’s more than half a billion dollars annually that won’t be invested in creating affordable high-quality child care spaces, building affordable housing (as opposed to a one-off… View Article