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Time to regulate gas prices in BC and stop industry gouging

Drivers in Metro Vancouver are reeling from record high gas prices, and many commentators are blaming taxes. But it’s not taxes causing pain at the pump — it’s industry gouging.

Our latest research shows that gas prices have gone up by 55 cents per litre since 2016 — and the vast majority of that increase (49 cents) is going straight to big oil companies.

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Time for BC to regulate gas prices, end gouging by oil companies: CCPA economist

Price increase at pump largely going to industry coffers
Release Date: 
Monday, April 29, 2019

VANCOUVER—It’s time for BC to follow the Maritime provinces and regulate gas prices to end gouging that has caused gas prices in Metro Vancouver to skyrocket, says a senior economist with the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives BC Office. 

“It’s not taxes that are causing the current pain at the pump, it’s industry gouging,” says Marc Lee. “Alberta’s oil industry is making huge excess profits at the expense of Metro Vancouver drivers.” 

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Canadian investor-state lawsuits disproportionately target environmental policy in developing nations: study

Release Date: 
Tuesday, April 30, 2019

OTTAWA—Canadian investors disproportionately target environmental policy in developing nations when they file investor-state lawsuits outside North America, according to new analysis released today by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA). Environmental policy is the fastest growing trigger for such investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) cases.

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Digging for Dividends

Sub Title: 
The use and abuse of investor-state dispute settlement by Canadian investors abroad
Release Date: 
Tuesday, April 30, 2019
Number of pages in documents: 
53 pages
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1.27 MB53 pages

Investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) cases launched by Canadian investors outside North America follow a pattern of disproportionately targeting environmental policy in developing nations. Environmental policy is the fastest growing trigger for such cases.

This report finds that since 1999, Canadian investors have initiated at least 43 ISDS claims against countries outside North America, whereas only one case has ever been brought against Canada by investors from a country other than the U.S. or Mexico.

The Monitor, May/June 2019

Sub Title: 
The Surveillance Economy
Release Date: 
Wednesday, May 1, 2019
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4.51 MB

Google (Alphabet), Facebook, Microsoft, Apple, Amazon. They are among the world's most valuable and most trusted companies, but increasingly the most scrutinized for their data-hoarding practices, monopolist tendencies, poor treatment of workers and willingness to bend or even break privacy laws in the pursuit of growth. More data gives these and other tech firms a more accurate picture of individual tastes and broader societal trends.

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“Bad news budget” slams the brakes hard on public services: CCPA

Release Date: 
Thursday, April 11, 2019

TORONTO—Today’s Ontario budget will do serious damage to the public services Ontarians depend on, the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives Ontario office (CCPA) says.

“Cuts like these don’t make Ontario ‘a place to grow,’ they make it a place where people have to just try and survive,” says Sheila Block, CCPA Ontario Senior Economist. “This is a bad news budget.”

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A confident opinion, a looming decision

The compatibility of the CETA Investment Court System with EU law
Release Date: 
Wednesday, April 10, 2019

On April 30, 2019, the European Court of Justice (Court) will release its decision on whether the investment court system (ICS) in the Canada-EU Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) is compatible with EU law. CETA was concluded more than two years ago, and most of it came into force at the end of 2017. However, a wave of resistance across the EU and Canada caused a stand-off in Belgium that almost sidelined the agreement.

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Ontario Has Options

Sub Title: 
Alternative fiscal paths for the 2019 budget
Release Date: 
Friday, April 5, 2019
Number of pages in documents: 
19 pages
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538.93 KB19 pages

The Progressive Conservatives are using financial fearmongering as a cover for cutting funding for public services. This paper outlines two alternative fiscal paths that maintain and enhance services while reducing Ontario's deficit and debt-to-GDP ratio. Both alternative budget proposals increase annual spending by the 3.5% necessary to maintain service levels, and top this up by $2.4 billion in 2019-20, rising to $3.8 billion by 2022-23, for service enhancements approved in the 2018 Ontario budget.