Search results for “site/ceta”

  • You Don’t Have to Sell BC Hydro to Give it Away

    I recently told a right wing friend of mine that this is the worst government British Columbia has had in a very long time. I said that not because of its political orientation and values that time and again favour the interests of the wealthy over the less fortunate in…

  • And from the department of kicking kittens……

    Vaughn Palmer asked the Finance Minister a question in the Budget lock-up on the day of the Budget speech.  How about a list of all those programs you’re going to cut?  No can do, Finance Minister Colin Hansen replied.  You’ll just have to wait until the Public Accounts are published…

  • Canada’s Shredded Social Saftey Net

    Our employment insurance system far below OECD average Between October 2008 and May 2009, 363,000 Canadians were thrown out of work – and the OECD projects unemployment in this country to rise to 9.8% in 2010. In this global recession, the weakness of Canada’s Employment Insurance (EI) system has become…

  • Beware of sales pitch for unnecessary CT scans

    I sometimes wonder if former prime minister Brian Mulroney still feels any pain. Back in 2005, Mulroney received full-blown chest surgery after having undergone a “preventive” health screen. His surgery and subsequent re-hospitalization for complications came after what the media called a “routine CT lung scan.” What Mulroney probably wasn’t…

  • Health Canada’s drug safety procedures lacking, says study

    CLICK HERE TO VIEW THE FULL REPORT OTTAWA—Health Canada’s drug safety procedures leave a lot to be desired, says a new study released today by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives. Drug Safety and Health Canada: Going, Going… Gone? by Dr. Joel Lexchin says Health Canada’s priorities are skewed in…

  • How green are BC’s climate policies?

    One of the most striking contradictions in BC’s climate action plan is the oil and gas industry. Greg Amos in The Hook, quotes our “green” premier out on the campaign trail in the northeast: “Let me tell you what’s happened in the energy industry in British Columbia in the last…

  • A whole lotta waste goin’ on

    Last week, research I completed for the CCPA was released suggesting that in the last five years alone the forest industry in this province has managed to leave 17.5 million cubic metres of usable wood behind at logging operations. Loaded onto logging trucks, you could fill a cross-Canada convoy just…

  • Economic Security Project (BC)

    The time is now for a legislated poverty reduction plan

    200 community organizations & leaders to BC political parties CLICK HERE TO VIEW THE FULL REPORT On February 5, the CCPA’s BC Office joined with 200 other organizations from across the province as signatories to an open letter calling for a legislated poverty reduction plan. Together these groups launched a…

  • Self-employed workers deserve social benefits

    In Canada, about 2.5 million people (approximately 15 per cent of the labour force) are classified as “self-employed.” Nova Scotia has about 31,000 (12 per cent.) Trend lines show the proportion of such workers has risen steadily in the past three decades, with some spikes in bad economic times. It’s…

  • Economics for Everyone, First Edition

    A Short Guide to the Economics of Capitalism Economics is too important to be left to the economists. Economics for Everyone is a brilliantly concise and readable book that provides non-specialist readers with all the information they need to understand how capitalism works (and how it doesn’t).  Jim Stanford’s book…

  • Free trade has failed to live up to its promises—study

    CLICK HERE TO VIEW THE FULL REPORT OTTAWA— Twenty years after Canada signed the Free Trade Agreement its biggest boosters have grown wealthier but promises ofbetter jobs and rising living standards fell short, says a study released by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives. The Canada-US Free Trade Agreement was…

  • December 2007: The Environmental Keynesian Alternative

    Environmental crisis calls for World-War-II-type collaboration As people become ever-more aware of climate change and ecological crisis, they are worried, anxious, and looking for solutions. Forgive me if I’m a heretic, but I think the time has passed for telling them to change their behaviour and their lightbulbs, claiming that…