Invisible Summer

BC is quietly consulting the public on possible updates to its long-stalled Climate Leadership Plan. The deadline for submissions is Mar 25, so hurry up and tell them to increase the carbon tax! In all likelihood, the government will keep stalling until there is a federal framework in place for coordinated reductions. But technically we do have a provincial law obliging us to keep reducing our emissions (though it is basically impossible for us to hit our 2020 target at this point). You can make a submission here: Climate Action Leadership. Below is my submission.

Continue reading →

This year there were a lot of interesting policies proposed in the election, including the Green’s Guaranteed Livable Income, the NDP’s $15 minimum wage, and the Liberal’s promise to review tax expenditures (seriously, I consider that important). However, I took the approach of deciding what my own top federal priorities were first, and then evaluating the party platforms on that basis.

(I’d like to note my strong support for the Guaranteed Livable Income policy, aka negative income tax, but I feel this is more appropriately a provincial policy. Despite that, it probably would have made my top 4 if it weren’t for the fact that somehow, the Conservatives have made basic issues of governance, democracy, and civil liberties important issues in this election.)

Continue reading →

I just made an 11-th hour written submission to the Select Standing Committee on Finance and Government Services. Each fall they consult the public on the upcoming provincial budget, and I figured I’d contribute my hastily-written list of pet peeves.

They have a Budget Consultation Paper that you can read for context, where they talk about government priorities (evidently: low taxes, boutique tax credits, free money for homeowners, health-care spending, and training; the last two of which I have no problem with).

My priorities are a bit different: transportation, electricity, global warming, poverty, housing availability, and transparency.

Continue reading →

Nobody loves the Olympic Games more than I do. Yet even I have to admit that actually hosting the Games can be a lot of work. Even for a world-class city like Vancouver or London, the Olympics poses real challenges. To wit:

1. They build enormously expensive world-class sports facilities, and then only really use them once.

2. The transportation logistics, housing demands, and sheer crowding are overwhelming and disruptive for the people who live in the host city.

3. It’s surprisingly difficult for fans to see more than a couple of their favourite competitions, whether they’re trying to get a ticket in person or looking for an unpopular sport on television at an odd hour.

How could we address these problems? The Olympics is not as resistant to change as you might think. After all, the Olympic Torch Relay was actually introduced only recently, by Germany, shortly before World War Two. So here are a few proposals for how we could smooth things out.

Continue reading →