BC BUDGET 2018: WEIGHING UP THE NUMBERS

The Horgan NDP government’s first full annual budget was presented on February 20. As widely expected, Finance Minister Carole James announced some worthwhile initiatives, while falling well short of the changes desperately needed by poor and working class families. One area which received wide attention is child care, a key […]

VANCOUVER CIVIC SPECULATION HEATS UP

With the October 2018 round of B.C. municipal elections just over six months away, many mayors and councillors across the province are not seeking re-election. This includes at least half of the 21 mayors in the Metro Vancouver region – a higher proportion than usual, perhaps reflecting a normal changing […]

ENVIRONMENTALISTS WARN LNG TAX BREAKS IGNORE CARBON FOOTPRINT

KIMBALL CARIOU The David Suzuki Foundation says that the B.C. government’s proposed tax breaks for liquefied natural gas projects, like the LNG Canada project in Kitimat, overlook the industry’s true carbon footprint. The Foundation points to peer-reviewed research indicating that fugitive methane emissions from B.C.’s oil and gas industry — […]

LNG TAX BREAKS MUST BE REJECTED

Statement by the Communist Party of BC, March 26, 2018 Less than a year after the BC Liberals were defeated in part because of their close ties to the big energy monopolies, the new government of British Columbia is already beginning to move in a similar direction. Despite their campaign […]

THE FRYING PAN OR THE FIRE: TRUMP’S TARIFFS SHOULD KILL NAFTA NOW

ELIZABETH ROWLEY After the 7th round of bargaining on NAFTA concluded March 5 with agreement on just 6 of 30 chapters, it comes as no surprise that US President Trump has upped the ante with threats of 25% tariffs on Canadian steel and 10% on aluminum. Trump thinks this will force […]

AJAX DEFEATED, SITE C GOES AHEAD

BC’s Minister for the Environment and Climate Action Strategy, George Heyman, recently announced that the KGHM AJAX mine proposal, located within metres of the southern municipal boundary of Kamloops, has not received approval from the BC government to proceed with what would have been one of the largest open-pit mines […]