The much-anticipated final report by BC Ombudsperson Kim Carter on her investigation into the crisis in seniors care was released last week. With 176 recommendations, "The Best of Care: Getting It Right for Seniors in British Columbia (Part 2)" outlines measures for improving quality, accessibility, and accountability in home and community care, in particular for home support services, assisted living, and residential care. According to Marcy Cohen, author of numerous CCPA studies in this area, the Ombudsperson has provided "an extraordinarily thorough, precise and do-able roadmap for rebuilding BC’s home and community care system."
Last week also saw the release of a provincial government "action plan" for improving seniors care. The plan does outline some small positive steps, but overall is drastically out-of-step with the seriousness of the crisis, and does not commit the government to fully implementing the Ombudsperson's recommendations. The crisis in seniors care resulted from years of cuts, underfunding and the failure to provide needed oversight and coordination. What's needed now is strong provincial leadership.
Implementing the Ombudsperson’s roadmap for seniors care would help BC’s growing population of seniors to live independently for longer, and respect seniors’ right to age and die with dignity. It would also go a long way to reducing strain in acute care, the most expensive part of the health care system, since any of the problems related to overcrowding and wait times in hospitals result from poor coordination and lack of access to home and community-based services.
A commitment by the provincial government to fully implement the BC Ombudsperson's recommendations in a timely way is needed. You can help by contacting your MLA by letter, email or phone (find your MLA here) — let them know that you support the Ombudsperson's recommendations, and want to see strong provincial leadership in solving the crisis.
In the coming weeks, we'll provide you with more analysis of the Ombudsperson's report, and brief summary materials. To learn more in the meantime, check out these links:
It is hard not to detect a note of desperation in the provincial government’s recently unveiled natural gas strategy.
In announcing it, BC Energy Minister Rich Coleman notes that we are “in a foot race” with Australia, Qatar and the United States to push as much of our natural gas as possible to the Asia Pacific, where, for now, gas prices are far higher than here at home.
But does a foot race to feed more gas into the gaping maw that is China’s over-heated economy make economic sense? What might the costs be to BC’s environment and energy security?
Such questions are flying largely below the radar as Premier Christy Clark and her energy minister trumpet the “exciting opportunities” of expedited liquefied natural gas exports.
What neither Clark nor Coleman seems keen to talk about is just how much stress BC’s water resources and hydroelectric network will be under to fuel several proposed LNG terminals on our coast.
That’s because the natural gas destined for export comes increasingly from deep shale rock formations. The method of choice to produce the gas — hydraulic fracturing or fracking — is extremely controversial due to the immense quantities of water that are pressure-pumped into the shale rock to crack it open and release the trapped gas.
Gas companies in BC are setting water-use records for fracking. Six hundred or more Olympic swimming pools of water are being pressure-pumped underground with enough force to trigger small earthquakes at individual fracking operations. The Clark/Coleman vision for “long-term economic prosperity” will see such activities repeated thousands of times over.
But it’s not just our water resources that Clark and Coleman propose sacrificing at the altar of the almighty Yuan. Once such water-intensive gas is produced, it will be piped to the coast for super-cooling to liquid form, then pumped into ocean tankers. The trouble is, the cooling process is extraordinarily energy-intensive, and will seriously strain our province’s water-driven hydroelectric system.
The first such cooling facility is proposed for Kitimat and involves a partnership between American companies Apache and EOG and Canadian natural gas giant Encana. Last year, the partnership cleared its last regulatory hurdle when the National Energy Board approved its application to export gas.
If built, the facility will require up to 4,500 gigawatt hours of electricity to operate. That’s more than one tenth of the power BC Hydro generates in low-water years, and more than 8 per cent of what it has produced in recent high-water years.
But that’s just the beginning. Six companies or consortiums are eyeing gas exports from BC, most recently British natural gas giant BG Group PLC, which is kicking the tires in Prince Rupert. Their power demands combined would swallow at least one quarter of BC’s projected hydroelectric supply in 2016. No wonder that BC Hydro and the provincial government want Site C, a third major hydroelectric dam on the Peace River. With its $8 billion price tag, the dam would supply lots of subsidized power to industry, while driving up everyone else’s hydro bills.
The stresses on BC’s water and hydroelectric resources are not, unfortunately, the only downsides to the Clark/Coleman vision. As noted by David Hughes, a geoscientist who has studied Canada’s energy resources for four decades, a rush to export BC’s one-time natural gas inheritance could, in the space of just 12 years, turn Canada from a net gas exporter to importer.
Then there’s the market that much of our gas is destined for. China may be sitting on its own mother lode of shale gas resources – a supply that the Financial Times recently opined might equal that of the United States.
That may help to explain why PetroChina Co. Ltd. abandoned a proposed partnership with Encana at a gas processing plant in northeast BC last year and why around the same time other state-owned Chinese companies such as Sinopec were investing heavily in shale gas companies in the U.S., acquisitions that some business analysts speculate will provide China with valuable insights into how to extract its own shale gas in future years.
More and more, the race that Clark and Coleman are intent upon winning looks like a losing proposition – one that could saddle British Columbians with a network of industrial white elephants, grotesquely strained water resources and an unnecessarily compromised energy system.
There is an alternative. It’s called go slow. Lower the boom on gas developments by placing firm caps on annual rates of extraction. That will do at least two important things. Ensure higher prices in future years, to the benefit of all British Columbians. And buy us much-needed time to more fully understand the interconnections and interdependencies between water and energy in a province that for too long has taken both for granted.
Ben Parfitt is resource policy analyst with the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives and a research associate with the University of Victoria’s POLIS Water Sustainability Project. He is the recent author of Fracking Up Our Water, Hydro Power and Climate available at: http://www.policyalternatives.ca/fracking.
Our new study released today shows that BC university graduates fully repay the cost of their tuition through taxes after graduation. University graduates in most cases earn more than those without degrees, and therefore pay more taxes. If post-graduation taxes were considered as tuition payment, upfront tuition fees could be reduced in order to remove barriers to post-secondary education — particularly since more and more jobs require university degrees.
Read Paid in Full: Who Pays for University Education in BC? and listen for interviews with author Iglika Ivanova today on CFAX at 12:30 PM and CKNW at 1:45 PM (Pacific Time).
We're thrilled to announce that this year's BC fundraiser gala will feature Bill McKibben, author and climate justice activist extraordinaire, most recently in the news for his part in opposing the Keystone XL pipeline.
What better way to celebrate the 15th anniversary of our BC office? As you know, tickets to our gala often sell out, so get yours now and make sure you don't miss out on this excellent event.
Monday, March 26 at 5:30 PM
Fraserview Hall, Vancouver
** PLEASE NOTE: Online ticket sales are now closed. Please contact Dianne Novlan at 604-801-5121 x221, or dianne <at> policyalternatives <dot> ca. **
15th Anniversary Fundraiser for the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, BC Office
Includes a delicious buffet Indian dinner and a silent auction full of amazing gifts, services, tickets to arts events, getaways and more.
Fraserview Hall (8240 Fraser St, near Marine Drive, in Vancouver)
Map and directions
Doors open and dinner served starting at 5:30 PM
About Bill McKibben
Bill is a world-renowned environmental leader. 350.org, the organization Bill co-founded in 2007, has been instrumental in building a global movement for climate solutions. Bill has been a key organizer in the fight to block the Keystone XL pipeline. A scholar-in-residence at Middlebury College in Vermont, he is the author of The End of Nature, the first book for a general audience on climate change. His most recent book is Eaarth: Making a Life on a Tough New Planet.
Bill is one of the most compelling environmental speakers of our time. Bill's talks begin by acknowledging the severity of the global climate crisis, but he maps out a hopeful, concrete vision for tackling that crisis. In his talk at the CCPA-BC gala, Bill will share news of the emerging global movement for climate action, and will outline BC’s unique role in the struggle to confront global warming.
Praise for Bill’s most recent book Eaarth:
"Bill McKibben is the most effective environmental activist of our age. Anyone interested in making a difference to our world can learn from him."
—Tim Flannery, author of The Weather Makers and The Eternal Frontier
"Read it, please. Straight through to the end. Whatever else you were planning to do next, nothing could be more important."
—Barbara Kingsolver, author of Animal, Vegetable, Miracle
"Bill McKibben foresaw ‘the end of nature’ very early on, and in this new book he blazes a path to help preserve nature’s greatest treasures."
—James E. Hansen, director, NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies
As Canada's premiers gather in Victoria today and tomorrow to discuss the future of health care, a new study from the CCPA-BC calls for a system-wide, integrated approach to health care reform. The study assesses BC's recent efforts at health care reform, including the introduction of "activity based funding" in an effort to fix long wait times and overcrowded hospitals. The study finds that ABF’s narrow focus on increasing “activity” in one part of the health care system does not address the system-level changes needed to control health care costs and improve patient care.
Read the full study or a short summary: Beyond the Hospital Walls: Activity Based Funding Versus Integrated Health Care Reform
Listen to lead author Marcy Cohen today at 12:30 PM on CFAX or 1:00 PM on CKNW, and follow us on Twitter for more media news.
The CCPA Monitor is the only place I know that one can go to for accurate and honest reporting on the state of the world. I would hate like hell to ever be without The CCPA Monitor; it would be like losing my sight and my hearing. I heartily recommend it to anybody who gives a damn about the condition of the world.
— Farley Mowat