BC Office

CCPA-BC has just published Working for a Living Wage 2011, which shows that the living wage for Vancouver in 2011 is $18.81 an hour, up from $18.17 last year, and far higher than the $10.25 minimum wage planned for next year. A living wage enables families to pay for necessities, support the healthy development of their children and participate in the social and civil life of their communities. The living wage differs for each community, and is based on the real costs of raising a family. The living wage calculation includes basic expenses (such as housing, child care, food and transportation) for a two-earner family with two young children, as well as government taxes, credits, deductions and subsidies.  Read the report and download a calculation guide for your community.

This half-day symposium is designed to analyse and discuss the economic and fiscal advantages and disadvantages of the HST. Economists, tax professionals, and representatives of social policy and business associations will address the economic and policy issues associated with the introduction and implementation of the HST. The CCPA's Iglika Ivanova will be speaking about the disadvantages of value-added taxes (i.e. taxes on goods and services), as well as participating in a panel discussion.

Details
Tuesday, March 15, 2011
Hyatt Regency, Vancouver, in the Plaza Ballroom
$25
Register on the Canadian Tax Foundation website.

A Factual Assessment of the HST is presented by the Canadian Tax Foundation 
and the Canadian Institute of Chartered Accountants, 
with support of the 
Institute of Chartered Accountants of British Columbia

The Vancouver Sun today published Ben Parfitt's op ed on the dangers of "fracking" in Northern BC. (Fracking is hydraulic fracturing: a method of extracting gas by injecting fluid and sand into cracks in rock formations to force them further open.) A group of citizens in the Peace Region — Peace Environment and Safety Trustees Society (PESTS) — is calling for an inquiry into the health risks from fracking. Read the op ed here: PESTS sour on fracking, want inquiry. And if you're in the Vancouver area, hear more from Ben at a panel presentation on fracking at the Vancouver Public Library on March 16.

Fracking is slang for hydraulic fracturing: the procedure of creating fractures in rock formations by injecting fluid into cracks to force them further open. The larger fissures allow more oil and gas to flow out of the formation.

Come hear a panel of experts talk about where fracking is taking place in Northern BC, its effects and what we can do to try to stop its devastating impact on our water and the environment.

Ben Parfitt is the Resource Policy Analyst at the CCPA-BC. Ben is the author of Fracture Lines: Will Canada’s Water be Protected in the Rush to Develop Shale Gas?, published by the Program on Water issues, Munk School of Global Affairs, University of Toronto. He is currently preparing a major paper on this topic for the CCPA.
 

Caleb Behn is a law student currently working at Woodward and Company, who comes from the West Moberly and Fort Nelson First Nations. He will be presenting the ongoing struggle against fracking that indigenous communities are engaged in and address the impact of resource development more broadly, in northeastern BC. He has experience working as a lands manager for the Saulteau First Nation at Moberly Lake and highly values the traditional knowledge passed on to him by his grandparents.
 

Wednesday March 16th, 7pm
Vancouver Public Library Downtown, Alma Van Dusen/Peter Kaye Rooms
Free Admission

Sponsored by the Vancouver/Burnaby Chapter of the Council of Canadians as part of World Water Day, 2011

www.vancouvercouncilofcanadians.ca

Image credit: Site of a typical fracking operation, Horn Basin British Columbia, with 84 tanks of water (5376 cubic metres) available for fracking.  Source:  Ecology Action Centre