BC Hydro knew 30 years before it started building the Site C dam that its chosen location for the most expensive publicly funded infrastructure project in British Columbia’s history had big problems. In fact, by the 1980s, BC Hydro had done tests showing that the ground at Site C had…
BC Hydro Dam site gallery (2019) slide 10/150.” style=”border-radius:0px;–objectFit:cover;–imagePosX:50%;–imagePosY:50%” decoding=”async” srcset=”https://www.policyalternatives.ca/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/pn_august2020_site-c-tunnel-300×133.jpg 300w, https://www.policyalternatives.ca/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/pn_august2020_site-c-tunnel-768×341.jpg 768w, https://www.policyalternatives.ca/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/pn_august2020_site-c-tunnel.jpg 900w” sizes=”(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px” />Earthquakes triggered by natural gas industry fracking operations near BC Hydro’s troubled Site C dam construction project are far greater in number than previously thought, raising troubling questions about whether they are adding to the already formidable geotechnical challenges at the site. Not only are more earthquakes occurring in proximity…
Appointment of engineer with long-term ties to BC Hydro to be government’s “independent” advisor on dam’s construction raises vexing questions In 2011, his last year as a salaried employee at BC Hydro, Tim Little earned just under $210,000 as the Crown corporation’s chief engineer. The next year, after decades of…
Oleksandra Klestova / Shutterstock” style=”border-radius:0px;–objectFit:cover;–imagePosX:50%;–imagePosY:50%” decoding=”async” srcset=”https://www.policyalternatives.ca/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/pn_feb2023_democratize-300×133.jpg 300w, https://www.policyalternatives.ca/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/pn_feb2023_democratize-768×341.jpg 768w, https://www.policyalternatives.ca/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/pn_feb2023_democratize.jpg 900w” sizes=”(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px” />Housing policy has a democracy problem. Amid a housing crisis, highly unrepresentative public hearing processes contribute to land-use decisions that fail to reflect the perspectives and interests of all affected residents. But the right reforms can help deepen democracy and break housing gridlock. At the municipal level, decisions about providing…
The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has brought the issue of prescription drug access back to the fore as questions of affordable access became international news in March. However, the question of how to guarantee access to necessary medications for Canadians is not new. During the last federal election, calls for a…
Court documents and FOI materials show BC Hydro knew shale would move at troubled construction project, yet Hydro proceeded with river diversion BC Hydro approved the pouring of massive amounts of concrete to build a buttress at its problem-plagued Site C dam project months before a critical drainage tunnel was…
Ontario’s new Progressive Conservative government is rejigging OHIP+, a modest but promising pharmacare policy introduced by the previous Liberal government, allegedly to make more efficient use of tax dollars. Where the short-lived program covered most prescription drug costs for people under 25, OHIP+ will now only cover people without individual…
Canada recently dodged a bullet when the House Democrats negotiated the removal of extended periods of monopoly protection for biologic drugs, such as treatments for Crohn’s disease and rheumatoid arthritis, from the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement. The Parliamentary Budgetary Officer estimated that these changes, if they’d gone ahead, would have cost Canadians…
I will never forget that time, years ago, when I went to the pharmacist’s counter to pick up my prescription, worrying about the cost during rent week.
Far from it, says chief of holdout First Nation over deal with province on Site C In 2015, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, which was tasked with informing all Canadians about what happened to Indigenous Peoples in residential schools, defined the word reconciliation as a process of “establishing and maintaining…
READ THE FULL REPORT HERE. OTTAWA—Implementing the first phases of a national pharmacare program would significantly lower costs to taxpayers, while improving health outcomes and access to care, says a report released today by Canadian Doctors for Medicare (CDM) and the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA). Canada is the…