It’s been two weeks since the provincial budget was released. Many of you may be unaware of the fact that the new budget contained $4 million to “test the feasibility” of a guaranteed basic income for all British Columbians. The basic income movement has been around for many decades. In the 1970s, the federal government…
Category: economy
Calling the federal budget “progressive” doesn’t make it so
Many have suggested that Tuesday’s federal budget was a progressive one. I am not so sure. While it contained many welcome initiatives, such as improved parental leave and significant increases in funding for indigenous issues, I was very disappointed to see three critical items omitted. First on the list is a national childcare program. I…
Put the right pressure in the right place for affordable housing
Housing in general and housing affordability in particular continue to grab attention in Vancouver. In the case of the development of Northeast False Creek, the City of Vancouver owns two blocks on Main Street near Chinatown and Hogan’s Alley that it expropriated in the ’60s for the Georgia Street viaducts. If ever there were a…
Fair play would go a long way at ICBC
ICBC rates are set to jump again — this time by 6.4 percent. This follows the insurance corporation’s largest annual loss ever — a loss caused in large part when BC’s previous Liberal government withdrew massive amounts of money from the corporation and put the money into provincial coffers. Will the rate increase fix the…
The nightmare of SRO conditions can be solved in an instant
With income assistance rates frozen for over 10 years now, welfare recipients have a very small amount available for rent. With the province of BC providing a single person on welfare with only $610 a month, SRO landlords are very limited in what they can charge for rent. So they use the low rental revenue…
Letting the light in for the New Year
As the year has wound down, it’s time to look back on it and forward to 2017. 2016 has seen many dark clouds. The election of Donald Trump was perhaps the darkest one of all. Justin Trudeau appears to have lost his appetite for proportional representation, and climate change is accelerating. No one would blame…
Making real “dates” for dumping fossil fuels
Some great news on the climate change front this week as Canada joins the ranks of a number of other nations in committing to a firm date by which we will no longer be burning coal. The Liberal government announced on Monday that by 2030 coal use in Canada will be a thing of the…