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Search results for: “site/Pat Armstrong”
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Time to mobilize like we mean it
Lessons from the Second World War for the climate emergency Even before the arrival of COVID-19, the history of the Second World War was making a remarkable comeback. Our movie theatres (remember those?), Netflix offerings and bookstore shelves were full of modern reboots of our mid-century wartime experience. Then the…
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arindambanerjee / Shutterstock.com” style=”border-radius:0px;–objectFit:cover;–imagePosX:50%;–imagePosY:50%” decoding=”async” srcset=”https://www.policyalternatives.ca/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/pn_feb2018_RaisingTheMinimumWage-300×133.jpg 300w, https://www.policyalternatives.ca/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/pn_feb2018_RaisingTheMinimumWage-768×341.jpg 768w, https://www.policyalternatives.ca/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/pn_feb2018_RaisingTheMinimumWage.jpg 900w” sizes=”(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px” />Raising the minimum wage is good for public health
Soon we expect the Fair Wages Commission to advise the BC government on a path towards a $15 minimum wage and a plan for regular increases. This will be very good news for our province. Increasing the minimum wage is an important step in reducing poverty and income inequalities that…
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Skyrocketing rent pushes modest apartments out of reach for lower-income Canadians in 97% of neighbourhoods
New study maps the rental affordability crisis in Canada’s cities CLICK HERE TO VIEW THE FULL REPORT OTTAWA—In nearly every neighbourhood, in all parts of Canada, the hourly wage needed to afford an apartment rental is far above minimum wages and rising quickly, according to a new study released today…
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The Swiss origins of the U.S.–Canada aluminum fight
The aluminum spat between the United States and Canada, as urgent as it seemed a few weeks ago, will have faded from most people’s minds by now. On September 15, mere hours before Ottawa was set to identify retaliatory measures, the U.S. announced it would drop the 10% tariffs on…
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Going… Going… Gone?
Slowly, stealthily, progressive state is being dismantled Most Canadians, according to one poll at least, did not much like the recent federal budget, but still found it benign. No matter how often the government tells us it is changing the game, we seem reluctant to believe it. But governments rarely…
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Fast Facts: Contracting Out Enhanced Home Care Program
Among the many recent changes by the Pallister government to health care was a contract with two private companies to operate the Enhanced Home Care Program (EHCP). This will provide community care to patients who can no longer benefit from acute hospital care, at an estimated total cost of $10.5M.…
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Without Foundation
How Medicare is Undermined by Gaps and Privatization in Community and Continuing Care The Community and Continuing Care sector is fundamental to B.C.’s entire health care system. The sector’s significance can be traced to the 1991 Seaton Commission, which proposed a “closer to home” theme for health care restructuring. The…
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WKanadpon / Shutterstock” style=”border-radius:0px;–objectFit:cover;–imagePosX:50%;–imagePosY:50%” decoding=”async” srcset=”https://www.policyalternatives.ca/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/pn_may2019_BCLabourCode-300×133.jpg 300w, https://www.policyalternatives.ca/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/pn_may2019_BCLabourCode-768×341.jpg 768w, https://www.policyalternatives.ca/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/pn_may2019_BCLabourCode.jpg 900w” sizes=”(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px” />BC Labour Code amendments: A foundation to strengthen worker rights?
The first comprehensive review of BC’s Labour Code in over a quarter of a century has resulted in changes to the law to strengthen protections and collective bargaining rights for workers. In addition to requiring a review of the Code every five years, the changes will: Strengthen successorship rights for workers…
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Memo to northeast BC: More fracking earthquakes ahead
Of the many “unknowns” flagged in a recent science panel report, few are as disturbing as the finding that no one can say how destructive an earthquake may one day be triggered during brute-force oil and gas industry fracking operations. The panel’s report—commissioned by Michelle Mungall, BC’s Minister of Energy,…
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An Open Letter to Margaret Wente
We need to think more analytically about harm reduction This is an updated form of a letter I sent to Globe & Mail columnist Margaret Wente in response to her attacks on Vancouver’s harm reduction program. Her first four columns on this topic appeared in the Globe and Mail in…
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Credit where credit is due: Financial literacy and the new Ontario math curriculum
A new mathematics curriculum guide is set to drop this September in Ontario, the first update since 2005. Not only will students be heading back to the basics, they’ll also be introduced to a new “strand” of learning: financial literacy. The reason I’m so excited about this development is that…
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Fast Facts: Building a community of opportunity and hope
Lord Selkirk Park Recent events in Gilbert Park have cast Winnipeg’s North End public housing complexes in a negative light. An opposition politician has called Gilbert Park a “ghetto” and “crime incubator”. Some poverty ‘experts’, in statements attributed to them by the media, have implied that conditions in public housing…
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