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Poverty reduction update
Lots of developments on the Poverty Reduction front over the last two weeks. Here are a few updates: First, last week brought news that Danny Williams is stepping down as premier of Newfoundland and Labrador. Personally, I’m sad to see him go. Rarely mentioned in the news reports last week…
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Reflections on the Citizens’ Assembly
One of the most interesting stories behind BC’s Single Transferable Vote referendum is how we got there. The Citizen’s Assembly on Electoral Reform ran for a year, a fascinating exercise in deliberative democracy, and perhaps the most interesting and forward-looking thing done by the Liberals in their first term. Wendy…
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Why progressives oppose Canada-EU trade deal
Photo credit: Olaf Brostowski, Flickr Creative Commons Seven years after negotiations began on the Canada-EU Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA), the Trudeau government is poised to sign the deal at a ceremony in Brussels in October. Whether Europeans are ready to actually ratify it is still an open question.…
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What the UBC rape chant scandal says about women in the Canadian economy
The news of UBC Sauder Business School students chanting about rape of underage girls during a FROSH week event has generated much outrage. As it should. While the chant might seem like an isolated incident, it is not. The recent rape chant scandals in UBC and in St Mary’s University…
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Ontario’s frontline workers deserve much more than applause
Workers on the front lines of our economy stock our grocery shelves, pack boxes in warehouses, and deliver our food. As COVID-19 rages on, they are facing dangerous working conditions with inadequate personal protective equipment, low wages, and a high stress load. Frontline workers did not sign up to be…
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May 2006: Labour Rights are Human Rights
Most Canadians being denied collective bargaining rights In the ideal political economy promoted by the UN’s International Labour Organization, the conditions of work of nearly all working people are negotiated by independent representatives of their own choosing. The situation in Canada falls well short of that ideal. A significant majority…
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Canadian postal services and other public services face new threat at the World Trade Organization
Study READ THE FULL REPORT HERE. OTTAWA–Canada’s public postal system is under threat at the WTO by a proposed expansion of the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS), which is being promoted by the world’s largest courier companies. Following the setback to planned negotiations on competition policy and investment…
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Province of BC / Flickr” style=”border-radius:0px;–objectFit:cover;–imagePosX:50%;–imagePosY:50%” decoding=”async” srcset=”https://www.policyalternatives.ca/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/pn-apr2020_income-assistance-COVID-1-e1586048016329-300×133.jpg 300w, https://www.policyalternatives.ca/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/pn-apr2020_income-assistance-COVID-1-e1586048016329-768×341.jpg 768w, https://www.policyalternatives.ca/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/pn-apr2020_income-assistance-COVID-1-e1586048016329.jpg 900w” sizes=”(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px” />BC’s relief measures for people on income assistance are welcome but more is needed
On April 2, the BC government announced emergency financial support for some of the most vulnerable British Columbians: an extra $300 per month for people receiving income and disability assistance and some very low income seniors, for three months. This necessary and welcome measure can’t come fast enough. BC is…
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The great tree robbery
As more old-growth trees topple and forest industry jobs plummet, an obscure government subsidy scheme fuels the collapse For more than 15 years, the BC government has rewarded logging companies with millions of additional old-growth trees to chop down thanks to an obscure “credit” program that allows companies to log…
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End fracking industry’s free ride with water; groups urge government to include water subsidies in gas royalty review
VANCOUVER – Public health, public policy and environmental organizations say the government must expand its current review of the fracking industry’s low natural gas royalty rates to include the significant ways that the industry’s unsustainable water use is subsidized. In an open letter published today, 11 organizations, including public health, conservation,…
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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…
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Fast Facts: The Education Property Tax Rebate
Do we seniors really need it? This commentary was also published in the Winnipeg Free Press on Oct 17, 2013. The opposition’s unproductive filibuster of the provincial 2013 budget increase in the PST has left many aspects of the budget undebated. One is its failure to provide for improvement in…
Province of BC
