Search results for “site/Pat Armstrong”

  • Fast Facts: Searching for fairness in Manitoba’s Carbon Tax

    Last month our office released a report authored by Harvey Stevens that found the federal carbon tax will reduce more greenhouse gases than the proposed Made in Manitoba Climate and Green Plan. The Premier responded that the federal escalating carbon price will hurt Manitobans (Federal carbon plan seen by think…

  • The Union of BC Municipalities Convention: a potpourri of policy

    For people who follow local policy issues the annual meeting of the Union of BC Municipalities (UBCM) is always chock-a-block with material. Last week’s meeting in Vancouver, which saw hundreds of mayors and councilors along with most of the Cabinet, much of the BC opposition and dozens of groups selling…

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    Community Benefits Agreements add value to public infrastructure projects

    The BC government recently announced that major new public infrastructure projects, such as the Pattullo Bridge, will be subject to a “Community Benefits Agreement.” The agreement requires that public benefits flow not only from the outcome of a project, but also from the process of building it. The move was…

  • Is it time for a Canadian “daddy month”?

    What makes for happy families? It turns out parents and policy makers could learn a lesson or two from their kids. Lesson one: share. OK, I’ll admit it, there is one thing you can’t share—those nine awesome months of heartburn and swollen ankles. But the day your bundle of joy arrives,…

  • Resource Economics Project (BC)

    Fracking has no place near critical dams or reservoirs

    Last year, a dubious record was set when a magnitude 4.6 earthquake was triggered near Fort St. John during a natural gas industry fracking operation. The tremor was just the latest to be linked to the controversial brute force gas extraction technique, and almost certainly was noted at BC Hydro’s…

  • New BC generic drug plan could save millions – but maybe not for everybody

    Very, very quietly, the BC provincial government is negotiating new arrangements for the purchase of generic drugs that could save the province hundreds of millions of dollars.  Done right, all BC taxpayers will win as more money becomes available for other health services.  Done wrong, much of the savings for…

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    Access to information in BC is about to improve. Except there’s just this one little catch.

    There was a fair amount of good news about Freedom of Information rules and a little bit of bad news last month. But the bad news was serious and you really have to wonder why the government would bother with it when the rest of the news was good. First…

  • The Monitor, July/August 2021

    Media Democracy and Combatting Misinformation Download 2.9 MB “Canada is no stranger to dynastic ownership of its media companies,” writes Robin Shaban in her feature article in this issue of the Monitor. “Thomson, Atkinson, Black, Irving: each family name is synonymous with the control of major press operations, either nationally…

  • Corporate Mapping Project

    Why would a boom town need charity? Report examines inequities in Saskatchewan’s oil boom

    CLICK HERE TO VIEW THE FULL REPORT Regina — When we think of a “boom town,” we often imagine a formerly sleepy rural town suddenly awash in wealth and economic expansion. It might surprise some to learn that for many municipalities in oil-producing regions in Saskatchewan, the costs of servicing…

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    A carbon budget framework for BC: Achieving accountability and oversight

    When it comes to climate change Canada’s leaders have been great at setting targets for far into the future and then failing to meet them. Nationally, this pattern goes back to prime minister Brian Mulroney and has continued through prime ministers Jean Chrétien, Stephen Harper and now Prime Minister Trudeau.…

  • Provincial budget will cause gender inequalities to worsen: study

    READ THE FULL REPORT HERE. ST.JOHN’S – The Newfoundland and Labrador budget will worsen gender inequalities in the province, says a study released today by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA). The study reviews the impacts of the 2016-17 budget on girls and women in Newfoundland and Labrador and…

  • Fast Facts: A Made-in-Manitoba Tragedy of the Commons

    In February, a provincial news release about changes to agricultural crown advised that “The Manitoba government has launched a consultation focused on agricultural Crown lands, to ensure upcoming policy changes reflect the views of the livestock industry while improving fairness and transparency in the system […]”. How will these changes…