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  • BC Needs an Action Plan to Fight a Nasty Recession

    On February 17 the BC government will table the province’s first recession budget in a generation. The big question for the budget is no longer whether a deficit is in order, but how large that deficit should be, and what a meaningful stimulus package looks like. With grim economic numbers…

  • BC Priorities in the face of an economic downturn

    Gordon Campbell’s recent 10-point economic plan will have no impact on BC’s most serious problem – persistent and extreme poverty. BC has the highest poverty rates in the country (by any measure used). Thirteen percent of the population is living in poverty, and for five years running BC has had…

  • Economic Security Project (BC)

    Getting by is getting harder for those in “casual” jobs

    Many experts are puzzling over a paradox in BC’s economy — why have years of solid growth and low unemployment failed to translate into improved earnings for those in lower end jobs? One piece of the puzzle can be found in the growth in casual work. “Casual” means you have…

  • Economic Security Project (BC)

    Paradox of BC’s economic boom means no payoff for casual workers: study

    READ THE FULL REPORT HERE. VANCOUVER — Despite solid economic growth and low unemployment rates, BC is home to a growing number of casual workers who struggle to achieve economic security, according to a new study by two University of Northern BC professors. Improving the Economic Security of Casual Workers…

  • June 2008: The Press Vs. The People

    Media ownership in Canada one of world’s most concentrated Lawrence Martin of the Globe and Mail, writing in 2005, noted that the media in Canada have become “concertedly conservative, moving to the right of the people, most strikingly on the question of U.S.-Canada relations (missile defence, Iraq, defence spending, taxation,…

  • May 2008: The Truth About Canada

    Some truly appalling things we should know about our country The Truth about Canada: Some Important, Some Astonishing, and Some Truly Appalling Things All Canadians Should Know About our Our Country, by Mel Hurtig, Douglas Gibson Books at McLelland & Stewart Ltd., Toronto, 360 pages, $34.99. * * * In…

  • Economic Security Project (BC)

    Ground-breaking study follows BC welfare recipients for two years

    Reveals welfare rules and rates cause disturbing harm to most vulnerable CLICK HERE TO VIEW THE FULL REPORT (Vancouver) A ground-breaking study that for two years followed British Columbians living on welfare paints a disturbing picture of how people are forced to make ends meet under new welfare rules and…

  • April 2008: Editorial: Alberta and Norway

    What do a Canadian province and a Scandinavian country have in common? It’s oil, of course. Both have vast deposits of the stuff. Both have tapped its extraction and sale to boost their economies. But that’s where the comparison stops. Norway’s oil development policy is much more astute and effective—and…

  • BC Budget 2008: A good start tackling global warming, but who are we leaving behind?

    In an era where taxes have been demonized, BC’s green 2008 budget is newsworthy for its introduction of a new tax on greenhouse gas emissions. But there are some important shortcomings in the plan, and in the rush to green, there is little in the budget to address many other…

  • March 2007: A Special CCPA Report on Work, Wealth, and the Economy

    Lots of insecure jobs created in 2006, but more good jobs lost Pundits have acclaimed 2006 as a banner year for the Canadian labour market, highlighted by an unemployment rate finishing the year at 6.3%, the lowest official average annual unemployment rate in more than 30 years. Overall, the economy…

  • What’s missing from the “housing” budget?

    The housing. BC Budget 2007 is a “housing budget” that does not build much housing. The budget commits to a mere 250 new social housing units over two years – a far cry from the 2,000 per year that was built back when the federal and provincial governments were in…

  • Making the minimum wage a living wage in Nova Scotia

    After years of pressure from anti-poverty advocates it seems that politicians and the media across the country have taken a renewed interest in the minimum wage. A number of provinces are in the midst of minimum wage discussions. Internationally the minimum wage has also been in the headlines. In Europe…