Poverty, inequality & welfare

Poverty and BC’s high cost of housing

Dec 7, 2009
By
BC Stats put out a release on poverty lines as they relate to BC, with an important finding: BC’s dubious position as having the highest poverty rates in Canada may in fact be worse than the statistics show. This finding is buried in the piece and the title, “Low Income Cut-Offs a Poor Measure of… View Article

How high should the minimum wage be?

Dec 1, 2009
By
At the BC NDP convention over the weekend, Carole James reiterated calls for a $10 an hour minimum wage. While $10 an hour would certainly be better than the current $8 an hour (lowest in the country), I’m concerned that this campaign is stuck on a round number not what is adequate for improving the… View Article

Food Bank use takes a distressing jump

Nov 19, 2009
By
On Tuesday, Food Banks Canada (the national association of food banks) released its annual Hunger Count report. While the report received some good national coverage (particularly on CBC), I was surprised to see no mention of it in the Vancouver Sun. The report, which surveys food banks across the country every March, found that in… View Article

On minimum wages and talk radio

Nov 6, 2009
By
Today marks the third time in the past four months that I get booted off a pre-arranged radio interview on minimum wages in BC. What is it about this topic that the universe doesn’t want me to say on live radio? I mean, I try not to be superstitious, but the string of coincidences is… View Article

Planning for a Green Vancouver

Oct 28, 2009
By
Last week, the City of Vancouver’s task force, the Greenest City Action Team, issued a plan for the city with short and longer-term goals and policy advice on achieving them. The report covers more than climate change, a good thing as it is important to identify win-wins that lead to improvement on other environmental, health… View Article

Poverty: How do we measure up? Very poorly

Oct 5, 2009
By
Discussions about poverty in Canada and BC are, sadly, forever weighed down by debates about how to define and measure poverty. Statistics Canada’s low-income cut-off (LICO) is the line most commonly used, as it is the only measure reliably produced by the federal government each year. It is imperfect, but the best we have to… View Article

Will job creation solve our poverty problems?

Sep 28, 2009
By
You may recall that during the leaders’ debate prior to last May’s election, Gordon Campbell argued that creating jobs is the best poverty reduction strategy out there. Since his re-election, the government’s attention has been focused on the economy, while social policy has taken a back seat. But is this the best approach? A recent… View Article

Droppin’ some HST

Sep 24, 2009
By
The province-wide revolt over BC’s looming Harmonized Sales Tax is reminiscent of protests a generation ago when the HST’s federal parent, the Goods and Services Tax, was born. The rationale for that shift was similar to that of the HST: to switch from an invisible tax paid by producers (the Manufacturers’ Sales Tax) that was… View Article