Frontpage-feature

What happened to the National Housing Strategy?

Mar 1, 2022
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Launched in 2017, the National Housing Strategy (NHS) was billed as a major re-engagement by the federal government on affordable housing after more than two decades on the sidelines. Starting with a headline commitment of $40 billion when first announced and supplemented in subsequent budgets, the NHS is now ostensibly valued at more than $75… View Article

BC budget moves in the right direction but too slowly to address pressing challenges like housing, climate, toxic drug supply and poverty

Feb 24, 2022
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With COVID centre stage for the past two years, Budget 2022 marked a shift back to normal. Yes, the budget earmarks $2 billion in contingencies for potential COVID needs, but this took up a mere half page of the main budget document. The budget narrative instead is framed around child care, climate change and investments… View Article

Why increasing government spending makes economic sense

Feb 14, 2022
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Author’s note: The latest BC government throne speech promised “to help solve big challenges – like inequality and climate change – with growth that is inclusive and sustainable.” CCPA-BC will closely analyze the upcoming BC Budget to determine whether the government’s intention is backed by the increased levels of public investment needed to meet the… View Article

Water protection must be a top public policy priority

Jan 14, 2022
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The devastating floods that destroyed homes, farms, highways, dikes and critical infrastructure during November’s record rains are both unprecedented and a climate change wake-up call. Let’s hope they are also a wake-up call for something else: our government’s failure to make water protection a top public policy priority. Over the past several years, the BC… View Article

The future of university divestment campaigns: Reflections from inside the movement

Jan 7, 2022
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To an outsider, university divestment campaigns might look like a hopeful but impractical social movement led by naive cadres of sign-waving students. The truth, however, is that divestment is more successful and has more transformative potential than what first appears. Largely hidden but tightly woven connections between universities, finance and fossil fuels have provided ongoing… View Article

The great tree robbery

Dec 2, 2021
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As more old-growth trees topple and forest industry jobs plummet, an obscure government subsidy scheme fuels the collapse For more than 15 years, the BC government has rewarded logging companies with millions of additional old-growth trees to chop down thanks to an obscure “credit” program that allows companies to log bonus trees that don’t count… View Article

LNG exports will doom BC’s emissions reduction goals

Nov 26, 2021
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When the provincial government announced its CleanBC Roadmap to 2030 on Oct. 25, conspicuously absent was any mention of BC’s LNG export aspirations, which will increase emissions from the oil and gas sector and likely doom any chance of meeting BC’s emissions reduction targets. The LNG Canada project under construction in Kitimat includes a gas-fired… View Article

BC oil and gas royalty review seriously flawed without consideration of water

Nov 25, 2021
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Open letter to the provincial government As prospects grow for intensified gas extraction in our province, we applaud the provincial government’s decision to review British Columbia’s decades-old oil and gas royalty regime. This once in a generation review is essential, given the significant threats posed to the climate and the environment by continued fossil fuel… View Article

Old-growth deferrals and the elephant in the room: we’re out of trees to cut thanks to failed provincial policies

Nov 12, 2021
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No one should be surprised that the British Columbia government’s decision to potentially defer logging in 26,000 square kilometres of old-growth forest angered many and pleased few. First Nation leaders were highly critical of the incredibly short, 30-day turnaround that the government imposed on them to respond to the deferral proposals, the paltry funding provided… View Article