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Search results for: “site/Pat Armstrong”

  • The Weight of the One Percent

    Environment hurt more by super-rich than population growth Last October, two things happened that captured media attention. One was the run-up to the birth of the United Nations-selected seven billionth person on Earth. While this was a rather absurd exercise, given the impressive inaccuracy of demographic projections, it does have…

  • Colour-Coded Canada

    Canada has failed to reduce persistent racism in the labour market: Report

    READ THE FULL REPORT HERE. TORONTO/OTTAWA — Despite an increasingly diverse population, a new report released today reveals that little-to-no progress has been made towards reducing racism in labour market outcomes. Canada’s Colour Coded Income Inequality, released by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, uses 2016 Census data to compare work…

  • Private clinics won’t cut waiting times

    Recent revelations about private surgical clinics in Vancouver offering quick service to patients willing to pay a “facility fee” have once again sparked debate about private clinics. Doctors who run these private surgical clinics argue their private services will decrease waiting times for others. Experience and evidence from across Canada…

  • Cost of F-35 fleet could reach $126 billion, report finds

    CLICK HERE TO VIEW THE FULL REPORT OTTAWA – A report on the cost of F-35s has just been released by the Rideau Institute and the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives. “The Plane That Ate the Canadian Military” was written by University of British Columbia political science professor Michael Byers.…

  • Seniors Care

    Beyond the economy: Where are BC’s major parties on health care and our aging population?

    We have been surprised, to say the least, at the lack of public discourse around health care during this election period. As a top-of-mind issue for British Columbians, you’d think it would be as central as the always large and looming economy. So what are the burning issues in health…

  • Corporate Mapping Project

    Big Oil’s Political Reach

    Mapping fossil fuel lobbying from Harper to Trudeau Download 1.41 MB 64 pages In Canada between 2011 and 2018 the fossil fuel industry was one of the most active industry groups lobbying the federal government with over six contacts per working day made with government officials. During this period, the…

  • Waste-to-energy incineration is both noxious and expensive

    At the “Waste-Based-Energy” industry conference in Toronto last November, the tony Yorkville hotel meeting room was filled with consultants, lawyers, company reps, and municipal bureaucrats, all talking trash: waste tonnage spread-sheets, the seeming evils of landfill sites, the supreme benefits of burning municipal solid waste (MSW) to make energy. There…

  • 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…

  • Right-to-Work: The (Ayn?) Rand Formula

    There’s reluctance among Canadian proponents to call for it by name. But Right-to-Work (longer, harder, without representation or recourse, for less money and fewer sick days or pee breaks) seems to be the flavour du jour amongst…ahem…politicians of a certain age. (By which I mean the Age of Dickens. Pip-pip, cheerio, y’all.)…

  • Building a universal child care system in BC means rethinking how we fund new spaces

    Last year, the BC government made landmark investments in child care, reducing costs for tens of thousands of families. And, those in $10/day prototypes (2,500 spaces throughout the province) are finally experiencing truly affordable child care. However, too many families are still desperate for access to quality, licensed child care.…

  • BC's Environmental Assessment Office has ordered Progress Energy to drain almost all of the water from this unauthorized dam. Photo: Ben Parfitt

    Drain it: Petronas subsidiary ordered to take action at two controversial fracking dams

    The provincial government has ordered Progress Energy to drain virtually all of the water trapped behind two massive dams that the company built in violation of key provincial regulations. The company was told on October 31 to drain all but 10% of the water stored behind its Town and Lily…

  • Where Icebergs are Born

    Nearly all the icebergs in the North Atlantic start in this place. Disko Bay, Greenland, is littered with ice as far as the eye can see. Huge icebergs sit somnolent in the morning sun, their surfaces lined with dark blue veins of frozen fresh water. A sudden clap of thunder…