Search results for “site/Pat Armstrong”

  • 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.)…

  • 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…

  • Chaoulli II?

    So private surgical clinics, led by Brian Day, are suing the BC government so they can charge patients for services that they, the patients, already pay for through their taxes. What a surprise. Dr Day (aka Dr Profit) unveiled the lawsuit at a news conference on Wednesday at the Plaza…

  • 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…

  • Corporate Mapping Project

    BC needs a full public inquiry into fracking

    Last year, more natural gas was produced in British Columbia than at any point in the past 10 years. That may come as a surprise to some people who thought that growth in BC’s natural gas industry hinged on the emergence of a Liquefied Natural Gas sector. It does not.…

  • 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.…

  • Massey Tunnel Replacement: where’s the data to support this project?

    It seemed like a good thing to do on a cold rainy day — curl up by the fire and read the long delayed, potential best seller: George Massey Tunnel Replacement Project — the Business Case. Admittedly, to some there are more exciting reads; but for a policy wonk like myself…

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    What would a fossil fuel wind-down look like?

    Canada has an uneasy history when it comes to fossil fuels and climate change. Our leaders have been great at setting far-off targets for reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) or carbon emissions, then failing to meet them. As part of the 2015 Paris Agreement on climate change, Canada committed to a…

  • The Weapons Makers On Display

    Canada’s war industries flog their wares at big arms bazaar The glittering opulence and sheer pageantry of the Middle East’s largest arms bazaar held recently in Abu Dhabi, capital of the United Arab Emirates, was like an alchemist’s magic, transforming the dross display of the death-bestowing technologies into a grand…

  • Selling the 2012 Federal Budget: Envy-nomics 101

    “It’s time for the public sector to have its 2008 recession,” proclaimed former RBC Chief Economist Patty Croft, impeccably dressed and looking admirably well-rested (early retirement seems to suit her), on CBC Newsworld’s The Bottom Line. We know that governments make budgets, and budgets are about choices, but her wish list struck me…

  • Voting to take care of one another

    This week my dad will be discharged from hospital in time to vote in the federal election. After receiving exemplary service from palliative care and the organ transplant team, we know what compassionate and high quality healthcare looks like. We also know how important it is to vote for a…