Environment, resources & sustainability

BC’s Carbon Emissions on the Rise

May 8, 2015
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It was a good story while it lasted. Over the past few years, the BC government and many in the policy community have spun a tale about the remarkable success of BC’s climate action policies, with a big spotlight on the carbon tax as a driver of lower emissions while BC’s economy outperformed the rest… View Article

Parents want to reduce their car use, so let’s invest in transit, walking and cycling infrastructure

Apr 2, 2015
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There’s a popular belief that parents chauffeur their young children everywhere. And certainly parents have many reasons for preferring cars over other modes of transportation: Children get easily tired. Parents need to pack things like food, diapers, etc. Parents want to keep their children comfortable and safe. Parents have busy and complicated schedules and taking… View Article

Discussing “Just Transition” with Karen Cooling

Mar 30, 2015
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In late January, we at the CCPA came out with a paper about “just transition”—an approach that aims to minimize the impact of environmental policies on workers and communities in affected industries—for resource workers. Drawing on extensive interviews with workers in several resource industries, our report informs a strategy to ensure climate action doesn’t worsen… View Article

Transit referendum: if no vote wins, what is Plan B?

Mar 20, 2015
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I got my plebiscite ballot today and of course voted yes. Whatever you think of TransLink management, its governance, the rough and largely undefined edges of the mayor’s plan, and the politically expedient but otherwise not particularly appropriate sales tax source of revenues, the simple fact remains that I and most residents of Greater Vancouver… View Article

BC Budget 2015: Missed opportunity for climate change action

Feb 27, 2015
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Global warming and the other ecological impacts of climate change threaten our health—our very survival. As the impacts of climate change unfold, society will face increasing economic costs. Even the National Roundtable on the Environment and the Economy,  which some have criticized as being unduly influenced by the Conservative government, estimates these costs, which include… View Article

The early and fatal undermining of TransLink

Feb 25, 2015
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Pete McMartin wrote an excellent column in the Vancouver Sun documenting the many ways that the provincial government has undermined TransLink. The upcoming referendum isn’t the first but rather the culmination of a two decade, tragically effective, bipartisan effort to prevent TransLink from doing what it was originally set up to do and what the region… View Article

Low-carbon urban infrastructure: a view from Vancouver

Feb 18, 2015
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I have a new case study (full pdf; summary article from the publishers) out as part of the Economists for Equity and Environment‘s Future Economy Initiative. I look at the City of Vancouver’s Neighbourhood Energy Utility (NEU), a low-carbon district energy system that hits a sweet spot of clean energy, local control, and stable prices at competitive rates…. View Article

11 things you need to know about BC Budget 2015

Feb 17, 2015
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1. Budget 2015 ends the claw-back on child support payments for single parents on welfare. This is estimated to put $13 million in the hands of some of the poorest British Columbians. It’s a good step forward, but it is very very small. $13 million is three hundredths of one percent of the provincial budget…. View Article

The case against a revenue-neutral carbon tax

Jan 15, 2015
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I’m a fan of carbon taxes, but increasingly I see the term “revenue-neutral” attached to it. Where I live, in BC, we have perhaps the most prominent example of a revenue-neutral carbon tax, and carbon tax advocates have come to promoting the BC model to other jurisdictions, such as Ontario, who are contemplating their own carbon tax…. View Article

Site C

Dec 18, 2014
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I was a bit surprised by Minister Bennett’s statement that I was 100% wrong when I suggested in a CBC radio interview that BC Hydro didn’t need to start on Site C right away.  He emphatically disputed the suggestion that the decision and start of construction on Site C  could be deferred three to five… View Article