Search results for “site/economics of childcare”

  • Manitoba Research Alliance

    Fast Facts: Poverty and Education in a Winnipeg Suburb

    First published in the Winnipeg Free Press December 5, 2019 The Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) scores were released this week, and once again Manitoba ranked poorly relative to other provinces and the Canadian average. Some will say, “What is wrong with our educational system?” However, the better question…

  • Big ideas on the supply side of housing affordability

    The final report of the Canada-British Columbia Expert Panel on the Future of Housing Supply and Affordability, published in June 2021, contains 23 recommendations made primarily to the BC and federal governments. The Panel organized these under five broad calls to action:    Creating a planning framework that proactively encourages…

  • An unauthorized Progress Energy dam where millions of gallons of freshwater was found impounded in early April. It is among “dozens" of unpermitted dams spread across northern BC, a CCPA investigation has found.

    A Dam Big Problem: Regulatory breakdown as fracking companies in BC’s northeast build dozens of unauthorized dams

    A subsidiary of Petronas, the Malaysian state-owned petro giant courted by the BC government, has built at least 16 unauthorized dams in northern BC to trap hundreds of millions of gallons of water used in its controversial fracking operations. The 16 dams are among “dozens” that have been built by…

  • Homelessness and employment: The case of Calgary

    On March 8, I gave a guest presentation to students in Professor Naomi Lightman’s Sociology of Work class at the University of Calgary. I was joined by Alexander Kulakov and Amit Nade, employment coaches at the Mustard Seed.  Here are 10 things to know about homelessness and employment in Calgary: There aren’t…

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    Big challenges and opportunities for the BC budget

    British Columbia is facing big social and environmental challenges ahead of Budget 2023: sky high rents, health care under enormous strain, a toxic drugs crisis, climate disruption and the need to build and rebuild crucial but eroded public services (to name a few). The good news is that BC has…

  • The federal election is over. Now can we really talk about how to improve gender equality?

    After an election campaign in which women’s equality became a rhetorical tool in a divisive attempt to instill fear and xenophobia in voters and control women’s religious choices, Canada has opted for a more hopeful federal government. But where does that leave women in BC? We know the primary causes…

  • Education funding: If it looks like a cut and it hurts like a cut, then it probably is a cut

    How an increase becomes a cut The Ontario government will increase education funding by $1 billion over the next three years. If this sound okay, it’s not – it’s actually a large funding cut, according to two yardsticks. The first yardstick is the budget approved last year. In the 2018…

  • Damage on Highway 7 damage at Ruby Creek from the November 2022 flooding events

    Government to investigate deadly landslide

    Months after five killed, experts to determine if failed logging road caused fatal mudslide Seven months after a mudslide killed five people on Highway 99, the provincial Ministry of Forests is launching an investigation into the event, marking the first time that it has indicated that a failed logging road…

  • Mural by Megan Wilson. Photo: victorgrigas / Wikimedia Commons.

    Reality check: Only BC’s very richest paying higher tax rate

    Under personal tax changes announced by the BC government over the past year and a half—including elimination of Medical Services Plan (MSP) premiums—the vast majority of households are seeing their tax bills fall, while the richest 1% are paying more. This is good news for tax fairness in BC. In…

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    A deadly wake-up call

    In aftermath of a landslide that killed five, experts say government must act now to avoid more “preventable” deaths Second of Two Parts (read the first) As 2021 drew to a close, Premier John Horgan said many British Columbians would remember it “as the year that climate change arrived on…

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    Just transition planning for a managed wind-down of fossil fuels in BC

    Resource development has long been central to BC’s economy. But commodity prices swing, industries consolidate and patterns of demand change over time. When they do, resource industry workers are often left holding the bag. The price is often much more than just involuntary unemployment for laid-off workers, but also includes…

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    What’s Kinder Morgan’s real end game?

    Here’s a different take on Kinder Morgan’s ultimatum and the so-called “constitutional crisis” it has sparked. I’m speculating, of course, as we all seek to understand what Kinder Morgan is really up to. But allow me to posit a minority theory: We’re getting played! It is entirely possible that Kinder…