Submitted April 3rd, 2023, by Catherine Leviten-Reid and Christine Saulnier Download 296.86 KB4 pages Before the emergency pandemic cap and temporary extensions, Nova Scotia had been without rent controls since they were eliminated in 1993 when the province faced vacancy rates as high as 12%.[i] Due to the abolishment of…
From a lookout high atop a windswept bluff, the scale of work already underway at Site C is daunting. Large tracts of boreal forest logged. Vast amounts of topsoil stripped away for a trailer city to house hundreds of workers. Gravel from the fish-bearing river excavated to build a roadbed…
Mineral-rich Congo ravaged by genocide and Western plunder “I’m interested in land not [black people].” — Cecil Rhodes Rarely has Western savagery been more destructive than in the Congo. After 115 years of Belgian colonialism and U.S. neo-colonialism, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) today is a war-ravaged, balkanized country…
Report says EDC is putting people and the environment at risk The Canadian government’s Export Development Corporation (EDC) is assisting eight environmentally and socially disastrous projects in the Third World, says a recent report. These are the Antamina mine in Peru, the Chamera I and II dams in India, the…
As the Federal Court of Appeal’s quashing of the Trans Mountain Pipeline Expansion (TMX) showcases, a wide chasm remains between the federal government’s platitudes of reconciliation and real action. Canada, the Court ruled, has again fallen short of its obligations to consult with and accommodate Indigenous peoples—to say nothing of…
Multinational oil companies operating in Nigeria are complicit in human rights violations according to a recent report released by Human Rights Watch. The report titled “Nigeria: The Niger Delta: No Democratic Dividend,” points out that “…oil companies are seen by the residents of the Delta [Nigeria’s main oil producing area]…
Laws that muzzle the disadvantaged violate human rights Download 282.22 KB 27 pages Attachments Fast Facts: The Case Against Criminalizing Panhandling: Laws that muzzle the disadvantaged violate human rights
Anniversary of Bentall Tower deaths highlights need for worker involvement in safety management Twenty-eight years ago today, four construction workers plunged to their deaths when the flyform panel they were working on fell from the 36th floor of the Bentall Tower IV in downtown Vancouver. Every year, construction workers, industry…
This is Affordable Housing Week in BC–a week dedicated to ending homelessness. Thankfully, two weeks ago, the BC Housing Corporation dropped proceedings against the 54 Woodwards squatters charged in October with contempt of court for occupying a publicly-owned and vacant Vancouver building. The Corporation seems to have realized that continuing…
Book Review of Humanizing the Economy: Cooperatives in the Age of Capital, by John Restakis, New Society Publishers, 2010. The economy is about business, right? Sure, we have a dynamic mixed economy, and most people support decent social programs and government intervention to protect the environment or to improve living…
Michael Lokner / Flickr” style=”border-radius:0px;–objectFit:cover;–imagePosX:50%;–imagePosY:50%” decoding=”async” srcset=”https://www.policyalternatives.ca/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/policynote-mar2017-time-to-give-high-tech-workers-rights-300×133.jpg 300w, https://www.policyalternatives.ca/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/policynote-mar2017-time-to-give-high-tech-workers-rights-768×341.jpg 768w, https://www.policyalternatives.ca/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/policynote-mar2017-time-to-give-high-tech-workers-rights.jpg 900w” sizes=”(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px” />The BC government recently announced an update to its BC Jobs Plan that focused on measures to encourage increased employment in nine key sectors of the economy. One of those sectors is technology and innovation. To facilitate employment growth in this area the Premier announced that an “Innovation Network” would…
A Case for Access Without Fear Reports about refugees walking across the Canada-US border beginning in the spring of 2017 renewed concerns about immigration policy and undocumented migrants in Winnipeg. In fact, the vast majority of migrants to Canada enter legally, through official ports of entry, and with documentation that…