Employment & labour

Over a decade, average BC wages fall below Canadian average

Jan 21, 2011
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Every week the government publication BC Stats Infoline publishes a summary of usually pretty interesting things going on in British Columbia.  They have a nice archive of these publications and it can be helpful to go back and look at earlier publications. I looked at January 2001, the last year of the NDP government, and… View Article

The problems with the textbook analysis of minimum wages

Jan 20, 2011
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I’ve been thinking a lot lately about the sorry state of the BC minimum wage, stuck at $8 after nine years two months and still counting. Yes, it will likely increase very soon, now that almost all leadership candidates on both sides have expressed support for higher minimum wages, but one has got to ask… View Article

BC’s $8 minimum wage sets another record (low)

Jan 18, 2011
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Did you know that BC, the home of the lowest minimum wage in Canada, just recently became the province with the longest minimum wage freeze in recent history? That is to say, since at least the mid-1960s when HRSDC data starts. BC’s minimum wage has now been stuck at $8 for nine years two months… View Article

How fossils fuel campaigns

Dec 15, 2010
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Kevin Falcon’s tour of northeast BC, heart of the province’s oil and gas industry, and his dissin’ of BC’s (modest but important) climate measures was one of those moments when one realizes that things could actually get a lot worse in BC politics. Falcon cut his cabinet teeth as minister for deregulation, and is positioning… View Article

Reduction in unionization helped break the economy

Dec 5, 2010
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Do unions have any role in today’s society?  Right wing organizations like the Fraser Institute say no but a report from an unlikely source suggests otherwise.  The International Monetary Fund, no left wing organization, has published a paper suggesting the decline of unionization is one of the causes of the financial crisis and an increase… View Article

Disappointing Premier’s announcement won’t help the BC economy

Oct 27, 2010
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British Columbians who expected to see any meaningful action on the economy tonight were greatly disappointed by Premier Campbell’s address. In a paid television appearance (*update* which we now know cost $240,000), the Premier attempted to set the record straight on HST and claimed to be concerned about the economy and families struggling to get… View Article

Which is more important, lower taxes or a higher minimum wage?

Oct 2, 2010
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BC Labour Minister Murray Coell apparently got taken to the woodshed this week after telling a forum at the Union of BC Municipalities that his government was considering raising the minimum wage. The next day he quickly called a press conference on the driveway of a Whistler hotel to “clarify” his remarks.  He really just… View Article

Pat Bell’s YouTube Foray – Sowing Seeds of Misinformation

Sep 21, 2010
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Unlikely as it is to garner a huge following on YouTube, one suspects a recently uploaded video message by B.C. Forests Minister Pat Bell may soon have more than a few forest industry workers, commercial tree nursery owners and members of Bell’s own ministry shaking their heads in disbelief. Under the pretext of kicking off… View Article