Search results for “site/GATS”

  • Trade and Investment Research Project

    WTO services treaty expanding into public services and domestic regulation

    Report CLICK HERE TO VIEW THE FULL REPORT OTTAWA–Senior government officials have just returned from a negotiating session in Geneva to expand the reach of the World Trade Organization’s services agreement into areas usually considered the exclusive prerogative of domestic policy-making. On the table are public services such as education…

  • Stack of papers with a magnifying glass resting on them

    Time to end information hide-and-seek games: Public deserves more prompt government disclosure of basic data

    No one should be told to file a Freedom of Information request simply to learn who works for them. Government must give members of the public access to up-to-date and useful information on who is there to serve them and quit obfuscating and abusing access to information laws, Ben Parfitt…

  • Why lock chaos into place?

    Deregulation of electricity markets in California and Alberta has resulted in brown-outs, huge price increases for electricity users, and possibilities of future shortages that could send prices sky-high. Are people in BC prepared for the same? There are mighty forces that want to see an integrated electricity market for the…

  • BC Hydro’s Integrated Resource Plan and The Case Against Site C

    It could have been me taking time off during the short Vancouver summer, or perhaps that the news release got dropped on the Friday before the August long weekend, but I totally missed the release of BC Hydro’s Integrated Resource Plan (IRP). It is an important document for the province,…

  • Closeup of stressed teenage girl talking to mental health therapist in session

    A Critical Assessment of Virtual Mental Health Care for Rural Nova Scotians

    Download 1.17 MB8 pages The COVID-19 pandemic has had devastating impacts on mental health and healthcare systems across Nova Scotia and the country. While demand for mental health services escalated in response to the pandemic, many in-person services were shut down (MacIvor 2021; government of Nova Scotia 2022b; Pulok et…

  • UNSPUN 2019: Meth, Harm Reduction spark debate this Manitoba Election

    Recent attention to issues of addiction in Manitoba has shifted from concern over opioids to methamphetamine use. Questions about government response have remained a hot topic during the run up to the provincial election. As a result harm reduction is starting to become a part of the public discourse. The…

  • Oil train
    Corporate Mapping Project

    Un nouveau rapport met en lumière l’état de l’industrie des combustibles fossiles dans l’Est du Canada – une région négligée dans les débats sur les politiques énergétiques

    CLIQUEZ ICI POUR CONSULTER LE RAPPORT [HALIFAX/ Kjipuktuk, 6 juin 2023]:  Bien que l’Est du Canada soit fortement investi dans la production pétrolière et gazière, cette région est souvent omise des discussions sur la politique énergétique, qui s’axe surtout sur les provinces de l’Ouest. Un nouveau rapport fait l’état des lieux…

  • Photo by Garth Lenz

    Fracking, earthquakes and hydro dams? Don’t worry. We have an understanding.

    This is the second of two posts. Read the first here. Efforts by BC Hydro to ban potentially destructive natural gas company fracking operations in the vicinity of its biggest dams fall well short of what an Alberta hydro provider has achieved, raising questions about why British Columbia isn’t doing…

  • Out of the Closet on Site C

    For years, successive BC governments have forbidden any new large-scale hydro dams. When I was on the BC Hydro Board of Directors in the mid-1990s, the Board passed a motion that all government land-holdings associated with Site C should be sold. The BC Hydro Board was against building Site C,…

  • Site C

    I recall talking to a senior BC Hydro planner a number of years ago who mapped out a very sensible way to develop the BC Hydro system. Retain the Burrard gas-fired thermal power plant as a back-up for extreme drought, when electricity supply at the hydro facilities on the Peace…

  • Revisiting the Economic Case for Site C

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  • Time to end profit-making in seniors’ care

    The coronavirus pandemic has shone a light on serious problems in Canada’s seniors’ care system, as nursing homes quickly became the epicenters of the outbreak. These problems are not only due to the greater vulnerability of seniors to the disease, but also to how care is organized and staffed.  In…