Search results for “site/economics of childcare”

  • A surplus at all costs? Balanced budget fixation hurts BC

    Almost every year at budget time, BC governments of all stripes predict public coffers are going to be worse off than they’re likely truly expecting. This habit is usually portrayed as harmless or even prudent, but when the budget room available to us is systematically underestimated, it distorts the scope…

  • Fast Facts: It’s getting great

    Government investment in social housing Over the last few years, the Province of Manitoba has invested millions of dollars in renovating and providing resources in two public housing complexes in Winnipeg, Gilbert Park and Lord Selkirk Park. These investments have re-energized the two communities, and are making a positive difference…

  • In Dec 2019 Premier John Horgan, Minister Carole James and Minister Adrian Dix gathered to celebrate the end of MSP premiums in BC, effective Jan 1, 2020. Credit: Province of BC/Flickr

    Happy new year—no more MSP!

    It’s a brand new year, and BC’s Medical Services Plan (MSP) premiums are no more. That’s great news because MSP premiums were a very unfair tax (or “regressive” as we economists like to say). In its first budget (in 2018), the current provincial government announced it would phase out MSP…

  • A Response to Saskatchewan’s Climate Change White Paper

    Download 1.46 MB20 pages The Saskatchewan government’s recent Climate Change White Paper presents an incomplete analysis of the impact of carbon pricing on Saskatchewan. That is the conclusion of Environmental Economist Dr. Brett Dolter in A Response to Saskatchewan’s Climate Change White Paper. A joint publication of the Saskatchewan Environmental Society…

  • BC’s shiny new climate plan: A look under the hood

    BC’s new climate plan, Clean BC, is a big and visionary document and was instantly lauded by environmental groups and businesses alike. In this post, I recap the key components of the plan and do a bit of a reality check against the hype, in particular the challenge of fitting…

  • Our Hopes and Dreams for Public Education

    We know there are significant pressures facing our valued public education system—overcrowding, chronic underfunding, a growing teacher shortage and inadequate support for students with diverse learning needs to name just a few. These cracks in our school system command our immediate attention and require our concerted advocacy.  When we’re focused…

  • Fast Facts: Ending Poverty, Our Collective Responsibility: 2019 Manitoba Throne Speech

    Yesterday, Manitoba released its Speech from the Throne – the provincial government’s plan for the next couple of months while they’re in the Legislature making decisions. Ending Poverty in Manitoba is a collective responsibility – one that deserves to be on the top of the priority list for any government…

  • BC throne speech repackages old announcements, lacks courage and vision

    Today’s Speech from the Throne reads more like a list of what this government sees as its main achievements than a true framework for going forward. New initiatives are few and far between, sandwiched between pages of self-congratulatory recap of the natural gas strategy, the jobs plan and highlights from…

  • Change in direction on tax policy needed to escape budget crunch, ensure high-income British Columbians and corporations pay fair share: study

    (Vancouver) The BC government likes to boast that our province has the lowest personal and corporate income taxes in Canada, but a new report says that’s nothing to be proud of. “A decade-plus of tax cuts has left us in a budget crunch and failed to deliver on promised economic…

  • Quality of Life Assessment is too important to be left to economists

    Download 229.48 KB 4 pages In 2008, French President Nicolas Sarkozy estab­lished the Commission on the Measurement of Eco­nomic Performance and Social Progress. It was headed by two Nobel laureates, Joseph Stiglitz and Amartya Sen, and coordinated by the French economist, Jean-Paul Fitoussi. The 22 members of the Commission included…

  • Indigenous activists Andrew Paull, Chief William Scow, and Rev. Peter Kelly (seen left to right) with the First Indian Advisory Committee. Credit: North Vancouver Museum and Archives 2191.

    Nothing ‘liberal’ about colonial policy prior to Confederation

    After 30 years of treaty talks, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission findings, and the adoption of the United Nations Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, First Nations still face racism on a systemic basis in this province. Can Indigenous People ever find justice in this province? John Price and…

  • Flooded road

    Government must do more than shuffle chairs to solve BC’s water woes

    British Columbia’s Ministry of Forests was always a poor choice to manage the province’s water resources—and it showed. So it was fitting in October that the government decided after years of being urged to do so to transfer that power to the Ministry of Water, Land and Resource Stewardship. But…