Across the nation, talk of minimum wages and their impact is always the stuff of vigorous debate. This Sunday it was the focus of CBC Radio’s Cross Country Checkup with new host Duncan McCue from 4-6 p.m. EST. I was asked to kick off the discussion, which was both rich…
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After a year of large public demonstrations against Canada-EU free trade, which have—refreshingly—given some European politicians cold feet, the Canadian government and European Commission have been scrambling to make CETA more palatable to EU member states before an important October 18 vote on the deal. Their main weapon is a…
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Imagine a far-off dystopia when foreign corporations are given the same status as citizens in public hearings. When the overriding priority for government in issuing licenses for fracking, pipeline and other projects is to make the process simple for corporations. When, regardless of how much a project is opposed by…
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Imaginez dans un avenir lointain une Distopie – une Utopie à l’envers – où les entreprises étrangères bénéficieraient du même statut que les citoyens dans les audiences publiques; où la priorité pour un gouvernement qui émet des permis pour la fracturation hydraulique, un pipeline et autres projets du genre serait…
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We are in the midst of a historic opportunity to strengthen our democracy. Our federal government has committed to making the 2015 election the last under the first-past-the-post (FPTP) electoral system, and an all-party parliamentary committee has been consulting experts and the public on how to make our elections fairer…
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The possibility of implementing a Guaranteed Annual Income (GAI) is currently one of the hottest topics in Canadian social policy. It gained momentum earlier this year when the Ontario government announced it would undertake a pilot study of the GAI. And in June, the Ontario government announced that former Canadian Senator Hugh…
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The government of Nova Scotia isn’t happy with the federal government’s carbon pricing plan. The Nova Scotia Environment Minister walked out of a federal-provincial meeting, and the Premier is asking the feds to recognize earlier reduction efforts. The Premier’s line suggests the federal policy is unfair to Nova Scotia, yet…
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After years of waffling, Canada is finally moving forward on climate action, including the thorny issue of putting a price on carbon. Last December, Canada helped usher in the Paris Agreement, a new international framework to reduce the carbon pollution that is warming the planet. On the domestic front, federal and provincial…
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About this time last fall I was debating with some colleagues about how CCPA’s Alternative Federal Budget should approach a carbon tax. It seemed clear at that point that the recently elected Liberals were going to leave carbon pricing up to the provinces instead of setting a national carbon price. …
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