Employment & labour

Seven reasons why you should support a move to low tuition fees for higher education

May 29, 2012
By
Much of the media coverage of the Quebec student protests has dismissed the protestors as cranky middle and upper-middle class children trying to protect their unfair privilege. And in fact, the vast majority of today’s university students do come from relatively well-off families. But rather than weakening their position, this supports the protestors’ claims that… View Article

Hail to the Chief? Or Bailing on the Chief?

Apr 18, 2012
By
A leaked provincial Cabinet document indicates that the provincial government is contemplating “suspending” the powers of one of its most powerful public servants in order to expedite a controversial logging program that has raised alarm bells in the professional forestry community. The document leaked late Tuesday afternoon, is the second confidential report in as many… View Article

Log exports: waving the white flag of economic defeat

Mar 28, 2012
By
Hi folks — I recently wrote this op ed for the Times Colonist on raw log exports and wanted to share it here too. We’re told there’s no alternative to sending our unprocessed wood out of the country; but some in the industry beg to differ… As more and more raw, unprocessed logs leave British… View Article

Enbridge Pipe Dreams and Nightmares

Mar 21, 2012
By
We released today a report by yours truly on the economic costs and benefits of the proposed Enbridge Northern Gateway Pipeline. In particular, I take aim at the outrageous claims about jobs made by the feds and Enbridge as part of their sales pitch. The report takes a closer look at the input-output modelling of job impacts, and considers alternative investments… View Article

Local living wage employer wins best employer award

Feb 29, 2012
By
Hats off to Eclipse Awards, a local small business that was one of the first to seek certification as an official Living Wage Employer. At an awards ceremony last night, Eclipse won the Best Employer award from Small Business BC. Their status as a living wage employer played an important role. Here’s a news release… View Article

The long term costs of legislating workers back to work

Feb 25, 2012
By
As the provincial government spends the weekend drafting back-to-work legislation that will impose a contract on BC teachers, I found this opinion piece I wrote back in the year 2000, when the previous BC government legislated CUPE school support workers back to work. Still feels remarkably timely. So, just thought I’d re-post that old piece… View Article

“Mass staff replacements” in seniors’ care: impacts and solutions

Feb 16, 2012
By
Deep in the second volume of the BC Ombudsperson’s recently-released second report on seniors’ care, is an interesting and important discussion about large-scale staff replacements and other substantial changes at residential care facilities. Under the current legislative framework governing most care facilities for seniors, a facility operator must notify its regional medical health officer four months… View Article