U.S. dependence on oil drives its efforts to control what’s left When Paul Martin met with George Bush and Vicente Fox in Texas last March to chart further continental integration (while Martin’s neo-liberal competitor for the Liberal Party crown, John Manley, was pushing for even further subordination of Canada’s economic…
School trustees are consulting with parents and stakeholders for this upcoming year’s school budgets while they seem to be under attack by the provincial government. Education Minister Goertzen had a heated exchange with Winnipeg school trustees on twitter earlier this month regarding education funding and taxes. Buckle up. With the…
British Columbia’s privacy laws are in the crosshairs of the nearly completed Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement. If you’re wondering what the heck data privacy protections have to do with trade, you’re not alone. Public awareness of the far-reaching, 12-country negotiation is scant, with polls showing three-quarters of Canadians have never even heard…
Happy to announce that the CCPA-BC has released its third documentary film, a video series entitled The Good Life – The Green Life. This project has been about two years in the making, led by our communications director Shannon Daub. I encourage you to visit the special website created for…
Manitoba’s pandemic response could do lasting damage to Manitoba economy Previously published by CBC Manitoba Opinion April 25, 2020 Manitoba’s provincial government is keen to have us all row in the same direction to combat COVID-19. But currently, Brian Pallister’s government is not only failing to dip its oar in…
First published in the Winnipeg Free Press May 1, 2020 Manitoba must help those being clobbered financially by the COVID-19 pandemic: it is the right thing to do, we can afford it and, as a diverse array of economists have noted, public spending is needed in a time of crisis.…
Previously published in the Winnipeg Free Press October 9th, 2015 When award winning author Joseph Boyden announced he would donate half of his One Summit speaker fee to Circle of Life Thunderbird House to fix its leaky roof, he likely didn’t fully appreciate the meaning of this generous gesture. …
Rich may learn too late that greed is self-destructive The poet Robert Frost speculated on whether the world would be ended by fire or ice, which today could probably be translated into either a nuclear holocaust or an ecological collapse. I’m starting to wonder, however, if perhaps the end of…
READ THE REPORT HERE. VANCOUVER — The coronavirus pandemic has shone a light on serious problems in Canada’s seniors care system and after the crisis the BC government should begin to transition away from its reliance on contracting with for-profit companies, say two Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives research associates.…
TimberWest is consistently one of the top exporters of raw, unprocessed logs from British Columbia’s coastal forests. The company also has growing ties with Island Timberlands, BC’s other top log exporter. The two companies share roads, log sort yards and other infrastructure to generate profits. “As affiliated companies, TimberWest and…
Noted Canadian author and social activist Naomi Klein published The Shock Doctrine more than a decade ago. The book’s major thesis is that governments and others in position of power exploit national and international crises to establish controversial policies while citizens are too distracted to notice, to engage and to…
The C. D. Howe Institute is out this morning with a press release entitled, “Raising Oil and Gas Royalties Does Not Benefit Provincial Coffers.” A complete analysis of the accompanying 30-page paper – featuring many graphs, tables and regressions – will take time. But here is my initial take. Background The Institute correctly notes…