Economy
Women in the Canadian Economy
As a young woman in Canada, I have not felt discriminated against. Throughout my university career, my gender didn't seem to matter and professors encouraged me to pursue a PhD and the life of an academic as much as any of my male fellow students.
In Tight Times, Campbell Gov't Chooses to Help Big Banks
Inept budgeters axed $100 million yearly tax revenue from fat financial institutions. And it gets worse.It used to be said of the New Democrats (when they were in government during the 1990s), that, such was their lack of business and financial expertise, they couldn't run a lemonade stand.
Sadly, with Gordon Campbell and his BC Liberals, British Columbia today has a government whose fiscal acumen is so abysmal, so evidently lacking, that they appear incapable of operating any business enterprise of any size.
World's top firms cause $2.2tn of environmental damage, report estimates
Report for the UN into the activities of the world's 3,000 biggest companies estimates one-third of profits would be lost if firms were forced to pay for use, loss and damage of environment.
The cost of pollution and other damage to the natural environment caused by the world's biggest companies would wipe out more than one-third of their profits if they were held financially accountable, a major unpublished study for the United Nations has found.
The Cleveland Model : Green worker Co-ops
Something important is happening in Cleveland: a new model of large-scale worker- and community-benefiting enterprises is beginning to build serious momentum in one of the cities most dramatically impacted by the nation's decaying economy. The Evergreen Cooperative Laundry (ECL)--a worker-owned, industrial-size, thoroughly "green" operation--opened its doors late last fall in Glenville, a neighborhood with a median income hovering around $18,000.
Rebuild Haiti, This Time Green
And show the world how to move to a just and sustainable economy. An 'Eco-conversion' Manifesto.
From Copenhagen to Port-au-Prince
The planet's fate balances on a knife edge, two cities on either side. Which offers hope? You may be surprised.
This is the story of two very different cities. One is a city whose past is steeped in historic achievement, and recent failure. The other is a city whose horrific past has gotten desperately worse, but whose future... well, who knows? Though world's apart, these places embody a common metaphor for an elusive global possibility.
City of the past: Copenhagen
Buy American’ trade deal threatens municipal procurement in Canada
The “Buy American” exemption deal negotiated by Canada and the USA last week may be a serious threat to local government control over procurement policy.
Until now, municipal procurement in Canada has been exempt from international trade agreements. But the deal announced February 5th extends the Government Procurement Agreement of the WTO to cover Canadian municipalities. These WTO rules stop municipalities from implementing “buy local” or “made in Canada” preferences for purchases of goods and services.
Industry questions power export scheme
B.C. could lose $450 million a year, critics warn
British Columbia's biggest industries are challenging the provincial government to prove that its electricity export scheme won't turn into a major money loser.
In a submission to the government's Green Energy Advisory Task Force, the industrial group calculates that the export plans will cost B.C. taxpayers $450 million a year in money-losing power sales transactions.
A Manitoba Solution for Plastic Bags
Plastic bags are now regulated as service packaging under the Packaging and Printed Paper Stewardship Regulation, passed in December 2008. The Guideline for Plastic Bags under the Regulation establishes a target to reduce the use of single use plastic bags by 50% within five years.Multi-Material Stewardship Manitoba (MMSM) will launch a new industry program to manage packaging and printed paper, including plastic bags in spring 2010.
Harold Steves decries potential loss of farmland with South Fraser Perimeter Road project
Veteran Richmond city councillor and long-time farmer Harold Steves believes the B.C. Liberal government's proposed South Fraser Perimeter Road is a "crime against humanity".
Steves, a former Richmond MLA and cofounder of the Agricultural Land Reserve, was addressing a January 16 town hall meeting organized by the South Fraser Action Network, an umbrella group incorporating opponents of both the road and the Gateway Program, of which the road is a part.
