In a particularly jerk move, the Fraser Institute chose National Aboriginal Day (June 21) to release a report by Tom Flanagan claiming that a sharp increase in people with Registered Indian status will drive up government costs.
Read MoreWhat an interesting and exciting moment in BC politics! For a bunch of policy nerds like us at the CCPA, it doesn’t get much better than this. On Tuesday, May 30, the BC NDP and BC Green Party released the terms of their agreement to cooperate and grant legislative confidence to a minority NDP government. The full text of the agreement is impressive and hopeful. It is well-crafted, aimed at producing governmental stability, and encourages good faith cooperation (there is even a dispute resolution process).
Read MoreIt’s been a little over a week since we were jolted by the profoundly disturbing reality of a Donald Trump US presidency. We’ve all found ourselves in many discussions about how such an abhorrent and blatantly racist and misogynist candidate could have won the most powerful political office in the world, and about how to respond.
Read MoreBC needs a revitalized jobs plan. The provincial government’s narrow focus on Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) hasn’t worked. The government hitched BC’s economic wagon to the elusive investment decisions of foreign transnational corporations, and to the ups and downs of international commodity prices, and the hoped-for investment simply didn’t materialize. And for all the talk about innovation, BC’s current economic strategy is rooted in old-style extraction and exporting of minimally-processed natural resources. We can do better.
Read MoreFor decades, the urgent need for climate action was stymied by what came to be known as “climate denialism” (or its more mild cousin, “climate skepticism”). In an effort to create public confusion and stall political progress, the fossil fuel industry poured tens of millions of dollars into the pockets of foundations, think tanks, lobby groups, politicians and academics who relentlessly questioned the overwhelming scientific evidence that human-caused climate change is real and requires urgent action.
Read MoreThank you for this opportunity. My name is Seth Klein, and I am the BC Director of the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives. Our office has spent the last eight years hosting the Climate Justice Project, a research and public engagement network that has produced a large volume of work about how to transition off fossil fuels in a just and equitable manner – an alliance that brings together a wide range of NGOs and academics. I would like to share with you the work of our senior economist Marc Lee, who heads up our Climate Justice Project, as well as the work of one of our research associates, veteran earth scientist David Hughes (who spent 32 years working for the Geological Survey of Canada, where he focused on unconventional gas, coal and oil research).
Read MoreThe climate crisis did not receive the attention it should have in the recent federal election. Yet there is no doubt that, like Mackenzie King, the new Prime Minister finds himself called upon to lead the country through a generational existential challenge.
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