Municipalities

Accelerate investment in public transit

Jan 28, 2019
By
This post is part of our BC Budget 2019 series, which highlights key findings from the CCPA’s research and outlines our recommendations for the 2019 provincial budget. Find more from the series at: policynote.ca/budget2019 Expanding public transit is a win-win for the province: it reduces costs for households, improves mobility, creates good jobs and supports… View Article

Housing platforms and platitudes in the 2018 Vancouver election

Oct 11, 2018
By
It should be no surprise that Vancouver’s growing housing affordability crisis is the top issue going into the election. All candidates are in favour of affordable housing, of course. Sorting out the chatter from concrete plans, however, can be difficult—not least because of the way Vancouver’s municipal politics has fractured going into the election, with… View Article

Mobility pricing: What happened? What’s next?

Jun 27, 2018
By
The final report of the Mobility Pricing Independent Commission (MPIC) was delivered to the Mayors’ Council and TransLink Board on May 24. The report was officially received and then referred to staff for further research and public consultation as there are many outstanding questions not to mention political hurdles ahead. If you are unfamiliar with… View Article

Mobility pricing: An idea whose time has come?

Mar 1, 2018
By
Metro Vancouver is at a critical point where congestion-induced delays are the norm on the region’s roads and bridges. Congestion problems will only steadily worsen because of our growing population and with every additional car added to the region’s roads. Expansion of public transit is widely seen as essential to ensure accessible mobility, but progress… View Article

Massey Bridge P3 borrowing costs yet another problem

Oct 14, 2016
By
As more information becomes available about the controversial $3.5-billion, 10-lane Massey Bridge project, concern about the project increases. Issues had already been raised about the cost and need for the project given questions about traffic growth, but the publication of two new documents raises concerns about the plan to build the bridge as a public private… View Article

Penticton’s peculiar policy on freedom of information

Sep 30, 2016
By
This is International Right to Know Week, a week in honour of the public’s right to information held by their governments. The week is being celebrated in different ways in the 105 countries around the world with right to information laws. Here in British Columbia the City of Penticton is celebrating it in a spectacularly disappointing… View Article

The international trend to public energy

Jun 28, 2016
By
The most Canadians probably know about the new mayor of London, England is that he is the city’s first Muslim mayor and that one of his first public actions was to scrap with Donald Trump over the Donald’s promise to block Muslims from entering the United States. But there are a lot more interesting things going… View Article