Vancouver’s commercial businesses — big and small — will soon get a break on their property taxes. City council has passed a motion to shift 2% of property taxes from commercial businesses and onto residential properties over the next three years. It will see a shift of 1% in year one, followed by 0.5% in…
Category: economy
Alberta election results deliver a sense of dread
My partner Penny and I watched the Alberta election results live on Tuesday night with a sense of dread. Don’t get me wrong — I’m no fan of Rachel Notley’s advocacy for the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion. However, Jason Kenney and his United Conservative Party will be an order of magnitude worse for folks like…
Lots of problems with Rental 100, not city councillors!
Carlito Pablo, who has been doing a great job covering Vancouver’s Rental 100 program and its shortfalls for a while, recently reported in the Georgia Straight that city manager Sadhu Johnstone is concerned that Vancouver city councillors are “causing a lot of problems” by pushing for more affordability in the program. But the problems are…
March 15 student strikes for climate action — join the rally as an ally!
I am very inspired by Greta Thunberg. She’s the 16-year-old Swedish environmental activist who sat, alone, on the cobblestones of the Swedish parliament one Friday last August, demanding action on climate change. She’s sat there almost every Friday since — in rain, sun, ice and snow — inspiring a worldwide movement of student action. Last…
New provincial budget is a breath of fresh air
All in all, the new provincial budget is good news. It’s definitely a breath of fresh air compared to what we’ve become accustomed to during the many years of the provincial Liberals. Here are some of the highlights for me. First off is child care. The provincial NDP, with the Greens, have replaced the old…
Let’s follow New Westminster’s lead on renovictions
Congratulations to New Westminster city council on their recent unanimous approval of a new bylaw to protect renters from renovictions. Landlords there will now face the prospect of fines of up to $1,000 a day or losing their business licence and, with it, the right to be a landlord if they increase rents after renovations…
UBC SkyTrain will haunt us for generations to come
I am so disappointed that Vancouver city council voted by a margin of 9 to 2 to approve the SkyTrain extension from Arbutus all the way to UBC. Even the three Green councillors all voted in favour of this very un-environmental proposal! As I pointed out in my recent blog on this topic, UBC professor…