Search results for “site/Pat Armstrong”

  • Time to push back against short-term rentals to help balance Vancouver’s rental market

    COVID-19 has decimated tourism and business travel, posing huge costs onto workers in those industries, but a fascinating side effect has been a more balanced rental market for Vancouver’s long-term renters. Asking rents for vacated units in Vancouver fell by 9 per cent in April compared to a year earlier,…

  • How (and how much) doctors are paid: why it matters

    How we pay doctors through our public health system is an important issue that receives little public scrutiny, despite the fact that physician compensation represents a significant share of the provincial budget and has been among the fastest-growing health care costs in recent years. A very useful analysis was conducted…

  • Labour Matters

    Work Life: Austerity, the economy and COVID-19…Manitoba Government creating, not solving problems

    First published CBC online April 21, 2020 COVID-19 has upended communities and economies across the globe.  Canadian political leaders have taken unprecedented steps to slow the spread of COVID-19, including the closure of non-essential businesses, schools and universities. These measures, while necessary, have led to a severe drop in economic…

  • L’annulation des loyers : un débat incontournable

    Face à la dette locative, quelle sera la réponse des pouvoirs publics ? C’est un débat que nous devons engager dès maintenant. Au cours des dernières semaines, l’impact économique de la COVID-19 a attiré presque autant d’attention que la pandémie elle-même. Le gouvernement fédéral et les gouvernements provinciaux ont agi…

  • The Lac-Mégantic oil train catastrophe eight years later: Justice still denied

    Forty-seven people died that night—their hopes and dreams obliterated, future wiped out.

  • May 2006: Feeding the Sleeping Pill Addiction

    Insomniacs becoming collateral damage in sleep-meds war I recently woke up at three in the morning with the chilling words “collateral damage” ringing in my cranium. This is standard-issue military techno-speak, a term you’d find in the same bunker as “friendly fire” or “soft targets.” It refers to those unfortunate…

  • October 2008: Prescription for Trouble

    Government’s links to Big Pharma threat to public health Does anyone remember that the Conservative party, just four years ago, promised to implement a national drug plan? During the 2004 election, with health care a top priority for Canadians, the Conservatives made a commitment of $2.8 billion for a federal…

  • Nearly 200 arrests and counting

    Image: Rogue Collective (Flickr Creative Commons) The build started with a single West Coast cedar tree. In the early hours of March 10, against the backdrop of forest-covered Burnaby Mountain on the shores of B.C.’s Burrard Inlet, volunteers carried in wood planks and cement corner stones and set to work.…

  • Time to rethink BC’s surgical waitlist strategy

    By Andrew Longhurst, Marcy Cohen and Dr. Margaret McGregor Have you had to wait months for surgical consultation, let alone the surgery itself? If so, you’re not alone. British Columbians are waiting an unacceptable amount of time to receive the care they need. Since 2010, surgical wait times have increased…

  • Public Interest Research Project (BC)

    Time to rethink BC’s surgical wait time strategy

    Have you had to wait months for surgical consultation, let alone the surgery itself? If so, you’re not alone. British Columbians are waiting an unacceptable amount of time to receive the care they need. Since 2010, surgical wait times have increased significantly for key procedures, including hip and knee replacements…

  • UNSPUN: Remembering Privitization of Home Care

    Brian Pallister has said that if his Conservative Party wins this month’s provincial election, he will not rule out the possibility of experimenting with privatization in Manitoba’s health care system. It may be worth recalling what happened when the provincial Conservative government privatized 10 percent of Winnipeg’s home care market…

  • Homelessness and employment: The case of Calgary

    On March 8, I gave a guest presentation to students in Professor Naomi Lightman’s Sociology of Work class at the University of Calgary. I was joined by Alexander Kulakov and Amit Nade, employment coaches at the Mustard Seed.  Here are 10 things to know about homelessness and employment in Calgary: There aren’t…