Sky-high rents, ultra-low vacancy rates and fierce competition for scarce homes have become the grim but familiar picture of housing in BC, driving unaffordability, exclusion and displacement. The BC government has made major housing policy announcements in recent weeks and a key focus has been tackling chronic municipal roadblocks to…
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…
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…
Algonquins and settler allies block proposed uranium mining A mining exploration company’s government-supported attempt to drill for uranium on First Nations land is finally beginning to create outrage far beyond the quiet corner of Eastern Ontario where it began over a year ago. On February 15, a Kingston judge’s draconian…
The BC Labour Relations Code is being reviewed for the first time in over 15 years. Since the last comprehensive review, which took place in 2003, workers’ rights under the Code have been continuously eroded. The current review presents an important opportunity to reverse this trend by improving access to…
In the past year, an energy dispute for the ages has played out in Canada, culminating in the federal government announcing that it will buy an aging oil pipeline for $4.5 billion and then twin it with a new high-capacity pipeline that would move massive amounts of diluted bitumen from…
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…
One year later Download 5.4 MB “More than an infectious pathogen,” writes Michal Rozworski in his feature analysis for this issue, “the novel coronavirus is a very harsh mirror held up to pre-pandemic reality… It is exposing the true cost of hollowed-out public services, debilitated trade unions, and cross-cutting economic…
OECD report repeats flawed analysis The OECD’s latest report on Canada’s economy emphasizes the challenge of rising healthcare costs. It contains several propositions, but only three have received media coverage and acclaim. These are that current trends are “unsustainable”, and that solutions lie in user fees and further privatization. These…
No one in the world has had all the answers, and there are bound to be mistakes and missteps. But the chronic lack of preparedness, slow responses and a legacy of austerity has resulted in more suffering in uncertain times. Without adequate investment in public health care now and into…
Scott Lough / Flickr” style=”border-radius:0px;–objectFit:cover;–imagePosX:50%;–imagePosY:50%” decoding=”async” srcset=”https://www.policyalternatives.ca/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/PN_may2018_caribou-300×141.jpg 300w, https://www.policyalternatives.ca/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/PN_may2018_caribou-1024×480.jpg 1024w, https://www.policyalternatives.ca/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/PN_may2018_caribou-768×360.jpg 768w, https://www.policyalternatives.ca/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/PN_may2018_caribou.jpg 1280w” sizes=”(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px” />On an April morning in 2014, members of the Fort Nelson First Nation tucked into a helicopter to begin a day of flying to fossil fuel company operations in their territory. The Nation’s lands are part of the expansive Treaty 8 territory that includes northeast British Columbia. A professional biologist…
VANCOUVER – BC’s Oil and Gas Commission sat on a damaging audit for nearly four years that showed companies that drill and frack for natural gas repeatedly broke rules intended to protect threatened boreal caribou. The document, obtained by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA), underscores lax regulatory oversight…