Search results for “site/economics of childcare”

  • Climate Justice and the Good Life, for Everyone

    In our Climate Justice Project, our research has stressed structural changes and collective action to lower carbon footprints rather than individual behavioural change. The ability of many actors to respond to incentives like a carbon tax is constrained by their circumstances. Suburban households often have no realistic option but to keep driving.…

  • What you need to know about BC Budget 2016

    “The measure of any society is reflected in the degree to which it is willing to help the most vulnerable.” Mike de Jong in the BC Budget 2016 Speech If this is the measure we apply to Budget 2016, then BC is failing miserably. What this budget offers to BC’s most vulnerable is…

  • Income splitting: a poorly targeted non-commitment with negative labour market implications

    I was on the CBC Early Edition this morning, discussing Stephen Harper’s first election promise: income splitting for families with children. If you missed it, you can listen to the podcast here (I’m at about 1:08:00 onwards). Since five minutes is too short for any kind of informed discussion, and…

  • Barbarism Lite

    Political assault on social rights is worsening inequality Looking back to the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights 60 years ago, we can now see that, at least in the North Atlantic world, the four decades that followed World War II were the Golden Age for ordinary people,…

  • "Photo:Paul Graham Morris / Flickr” style=”border-radius:0px;–objectFit:cover;–imagePosX:50%;–imagePosY:50%” decoding=”async” srcset=”https://www.policyalternatives.ca/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/pn_nov2017_GHGTargetsAnniversary-300×133.jpg 300w, https://www.policyalternatives.ca/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/pn_nov2017_GHGTargetsAnniversary-768×341.jpg 768w, https://www.policyalternatives.ca/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/pn_nov2017_GHGTargetsAnniversary.jpg 900w” sizes=”(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px” />

    Where is BC headed on climate action?

    Canadian politicians have a long-standing tradition of proclaiming targets to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, then failing to meet them. After a wake-up call in the form of a record fire season this past summer, what are the prospects for climate leadership from BC’s new government? First, a look back November…

  • All photos © Garth Lenz unless otherwise noted.

    TMX: What’s at stake?

    New research from veteran earth scientist David Hughes concludes that the Trans Mountain Pipeline expansion project (TMX) makes no financial sense. In fact, Alberta heavy oil producers can expect to lose money on every barrel of oil they produce and move through TMX. Contrary to claims that bringing heavy oil…

  • Reassessment of Need for the Trans Mountain Pipeline Expansion Project

    Production forecasts, economics and environmental considerations Download 3.56 MB 28 pages This report concludes that the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion project (TMX) is not needed to meet forecasted Canadian capacity needs. The author, J. David Hughes, also demonstrates that contrary to claims that bringing heavy oil to tidewater for export…

  • Fast Facts: What kind of Economic Development Strategy requires a new convention centre?

    The province’s NDP government has determined that its support of a new trade and convention centre in Halifax is in the best interest of all Nova Scotians. How did it make this determination? The premier’s comments — made at the press conference announcing this decision — suggest that the government’s…

  • Real Change? Or Business as Usual?

    New “New Deal” is unlikely to come from Obama presidency When the U.S. Treasury last October lavished $700 billion on Wall Street banks with no strings attached, the Obama team gave the bailout a green light. A popular insurgence was soon silenced, with public wrath directed instead at the U.S.…

  • Vancouver’s Secured Rental Policy and the battle over density

    In North American cities with growing populations and economies, a similar political story on housing affordability is playing out. Calls to permit more dense housing supply—also known as upzoning or changes to land use regulations to allow multi-unit buildings on “single-family” detached lots—pit older, wealthier homeowners against younger, less affluent,…

  • Canada’s new Poverty Reduction Strategy: Strong on accountability, short on action

    Note: All figures in the above chart from the 2016 Census, based on Market Basket Measure, Canada’s official poverty line for 2015 income year. Numbers are rounded. These figures are slightly different from those report in the PRS based on the 2015 Canada Income Survey. Canada’s Poverty Reduction Strategy, Opportunity…

  • BC NDP-Green agreement commits to Indigenous consent

    In their power-sharing agreement, the BC New Democrat and Green parties commit to support the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and the Supreme Court of Canada’s 2014 Tsilhqot’in decision, calling the documents “foundational” to their shared policy agenda. Central to both is Indigenous peoples’ right to free,…