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7 things that should be in this year’s BC Budget
In the fifth year of a slow and largely jobless economic recovery, the 2014 BC Budget should prioritize measures to set the foundation of a more just and sustainable economy, where prosperity is shared by all citizens. Here are 7 initiatives that will get us there. 1. A comprehensive poverty…
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Fast Facts: Manitoba’s 2020 Budget: Welcome to Reality
First published in the Winnipeg Free Press March 30, 2020 Never has a provincial budget become so out-of-date so fast. In many ways, it’s just as well. Budget 2020 brought in tax cuts that were highly questionable at the best of times and which would have made the current situation…
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Doug Ford must go big on COVID-19 spending
Ontario Premier Doug Ford will be in the spotlight this week. Last week, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced $27 billion in new federal spending to support workers and businesses affected by COVID-19. This week, it’s the premier’s turn to step up. Ford’s budget update will tell Ontarians exactly how far…
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Pipe Dreams: The risky bets behind Ottawa’s TMX purchase
The federal government’s decision, announced this morning, to purchase the existing Trans Mountain pipeline and the pipeline expansion project from Kinder Morgan for $4.5 billion is politically risky, economically perilous and, as we’ve said many times before, impossible to justify on environmental grounds. It all looks even worse when you…
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Fast Facts: New Federal government – opportunity to end crisis of poor housing
For Winnipeg residents with low incomes, the lack of affordable quality housing is a crisis. According to the 2011 National Housing Survey, 34,000 Winnipeg renters paid more than 30 percent of their income in rent, while thousands more lived in housing that was overcrowded or in poor condition. Poor housing…
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Easy Water: Time bombs, fracking dams and the rush for H2O on private farmlands
The number of unlicensed and potentially dangerous dams built in recent years in northeast British Columbia is nearly double what has been reported, according to one of the province’s top water officials. At least 92 unauthorized dams have been built in the region where natural gas industry fracking operations consume…
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Healthy forests for a cooler future
There was every reason to believe in the early spring of this year that the most ambitious tree-planting program in British Columbia’s history would be scuttled by COVID-19. A record 310 million seedlings were slated to be planted. But with the unfolding pandemic, all bets were off. Only after tree-planting…
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BC Budget 2020 stays the course, missing opportunities to ramp up crucial social and environmental investments
VICTORIA — In its third budget, the BC government delivered on the final year of investment commitments set out in its ambitious 2018 budget, but more should have been done for those who need it most, says the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives. In particular, not increasing welfare or disability…
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BC government plans for LNG exports require extensive impact on water, land, climate; jeopardize energy security: major new study
READ THE FULL REPORT HERE. Vancouver – As the BC and federal governments continue to push for LNG (liquefied natural gas) development and export, a major new study details the consequences of ramping up fracking and LNG production: not only serious environmental and climate impacts, but grave risks to Canada’s…
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Fast Facts: Humanitarian and Poverty COVID Crisis Looms
Open Letter to Province of Manitoba Below are the contents of an open letter sent to Premier Pallister and Minister of Families Heather Stefanson on November 10th from Make Poverty History Manitoba. There is broad consensus that COVID-19 disproportionately affects people living in poverty as income is a social determinant…
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Access to subsidized assisted living dropping as for-profit companies focus on more lucrative private-pay market: study
Vancouver — BC added a mere 105 units of publicly subsidized assisted living over nearly a decade (2010-17), despite a growing population of seniors. As a result, access to subsidized assisted living dropped, while the number of private-pay units grew by leaps and bounds over the same period, with 1,130…
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Balanced Budget Legislation – another zombie policy returns from the dead
Ah, here we go again – when seeking to assert credibility as sound fiscal managers, governments reach for the tired gimmick of “balanced budget legislation” (BBL). It’s not about good economics. Nor about good public policy. Just crass politics. And now the federal government is once again dangling this useless…
