I was reading up on poverty reduction policies and I came across a paragraph by Dalhousie University economics professor Lars Osberg that was just begging to be shared and discussed on PolicyNote:
Do we need a business case for poverty reduction?
August 25th, 2010 · Iglika Ivanova · Poverty, inequality & welfare
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The End of the H1N1 Pandemic
August 23rd, 2010 · Alan Cassels · Health care, Uncategorized
The world spent billions on medication and vaccine stockpiles because the World Health Organization cried wolf. If the WHO cannot cleanse its ties to the industrialists hungry for profits in exaggerating the severity of disease in order to sell treatments, why should we ever again listen to anything they say?
Reaction to the Tamil boat: curious comparisons
August 21st, 2010 · Seth Klein · Immigrants & refugees
If the 492 Tamil asylum-seekers who recently arrived by boat on BC’s shores are “queue-jumpers”, then I guess my parents were too. See, they came as Vietnam War draft dodgers from the US in 1967. Like a couple of the Tamil women just arrived, my mom was pregnant with me. My parents did not seek [...]
HST and the NDP
August 21st, 2010 · Marvin Shaffer · Economy, Provincial budget & finance
Let’s face it. You can’t blame the NDP or anyone else enjoying the drubbing the Liberals are getting from Bill Vander Zalm and co. It is incredibly fun to watch. There is no question that the drubbing is well deserved. Whatever one thinks of the merits of an HST versus the PST it replaced, it [...]
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Lack of water data a cause for public concern
August 19th, 2010 · Ben Parfitt · Energy, Environment, resources & sustainability
In our high-speed digital world, there is no excuse for regulators failing to post and update information that is readily available to them and of evident public interest. This is especially true when the fate of vitally important, publicly owned assets such as water hangs in the balance. To have faith that water resources are [...]
→ No CommentsTags: accountability·BC Oil and Gas Commission·oil and gas·water
The impact of the recession on young people
August 13th, 2010 · Keith Reynolds · Children & youth, Economy, Employment & labour
The International Labour Organization published a report this week on world youth unemployment that seems to have some relevance here in British Columbia. The study, Global Employment Trends for Youth, outlines the devastating impact the recession has had on young people worldwide. More than 80 million people aged 15 to 24 were unemployed at the [...]
Cholesterol drugs don’t help the healthy
August 12th, 2010 · Alan Cassels · Health care
I have said this before and this recent research begs me to say this again: Someday we will look back on society’s zeal for checking and chemically altering our blood cholesterol in the same way we now regard blood letting and purging: A medical barbarity that good science cannot support.
The Smart Tax Alliance. Non-Partisan? Really?
August 8th, 2010 · Keith Reynolds · Provincial budget & finance, Taxes
Last Thursday BC newspapers carried a large ad supporting implementation of the Harmonized Sales Tax. The advertisement was signed by the “Smart Taxation Alliance” a group of 30 or so employer organizations. The ad carried the usual dubious arguments that transferring the cost of taxes from corporations to consumers will create vast economic activity. What [...]
→ 4 CommentsTags: Harmonized Sales Tax·HST·Smart Tax Alliance
12 year olds at work: cuts, strains, dislocations and fractures
August 4th, 2010 · Keith Reynolds · Children & youth, Law & legal issues
Last month the Medical Officer of Health for the Sea to Sky Region published an article in a Squamish newspaper raising his concerns about child labour in British Columbia. In his column Dr. Paul Martiquet reports that in BC the minimum age for working a regular job is 12 – the lowest of any jurisdiction [...]
→ 1 CommentTags: Child Labour·Health and Safety·labour·WorkSafeBC
‘Prosperity’ Mine
July 30th, 2010 · Marvin Shaffer · Economy, Energy
So there I was in Durham near Newcastle, enjoying a pint in a very historic and charming little pub called the Dun Cow (where do the Brits come up with these names). I was looking at some old photos of hard working folks coming out of the mines and couldn’t help but think of B.C.’s [...]
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