Thoughts on BC Politics and More

The housing crisis caused by Canada's immigration boom was a preventable nightmare By Doug Firby   Has Canada courted too many immigrants to our country? The answer is no ... and yes. No, because accepted wisdom tells us we need skilled workers – a lot of them – to fill the employment gaps created by retired boomers like me. Economists tell us that if we fail to address the worker shortage, our economy and standard of living will dive faster than a Kingfisher into a lake. Yet, governments at municipal, provincial and federal levels have spectacularly fumbled a series of urgent actions needed to accommodate the inrush of temporary and landed immigrants who – guess what? – aren’t too interested in sleeping in the streets. Our political leaders have created, enabled and, in some cases, negligently assisted the emergence of a housing crisis that, in a few short years, has turned our country from an affordable land of opportunity into a debt-sentence nightmare. In this dark new world

... the current B.C. political scenario recalls recent elections in two Canadian provinces. When opposition parties are unable to reach 30 per cent – as was the case in 2022 in Ontario and Quebec – the sentiment for change, big or small, has clearly failed to bring voters under one credible alternative to the party in power. The next months will be crucial for the BC Conservatives and BC United in their efforts to become that voice. CLICK HERE for the full story

A BC United MLA has reached out to the federal government in hopes of putting an immediate end to B.C.’s drug decriminalization pilot program. In a letter to the federal minister for mental health and addictions, Elenore Sturko says she believes the province hasn’t proved its one-year-old decriminalization pilot is working, especially after another record breaking year for toxic drug deaths ...  CLICK HERE for the full

As the author of a book on deforestation in Canada, I feel I have some qualification to comment on recent claims made by an alliance of environmental groups that the federal government is “spinning” the truth on the subject. Unfortunately, there is widespread public (and media) confusion about what deforestation is and isn’t. From a dictionary point of view, it would be easy to conclude that deforestation is simply about removing trees, and that reforestation is about growing them back again. That’s what the commonly displayed images all show: a stark clear-cut, or a young green spruce stretching skyward. But for people whose job it is to track deforestation and to do something about it, it’s a lot more complicated than that ... CLICK HERE for the full story

... this is an existential problem for her company. If it had just been the flavour, she wouldn’t have a problem. I've been thinking about this episode a lot lately, usually after reading the latest musings from an unnamed Liberal caucus source in one of our remaining news outlets. The refrain is the same. They go down a list of the government's perceived accomplishments: cannabis, childcare, Canada Child Benefit, and so on, and then they express total bewilderment as to why the government isn't more popular. They think they have a superficial problem: that Canadians don’t like the way the Liberals’ policy options are being marketed to them. So they’re proposing brand changes: a new ad agency, some whizz bang communications improvement, will put them back in the running. It won’t. This isn’t a comms problem ... CLICK HERE for the full op/ed

... Canada’s immigration policy needs to consider two stark realities: a serious housing shortage and a collapsing health care system — with both getting worse every day. The year 2022 set a record for housing starts at 320,000, but that’s less than a third the immigration rate and not even enough to house the 446,000 employees added to the federal public service in the past three years. A recent bulletin from public policy think tank SecondStreet.org reported the number of patients who died while waiting for medical care had reached a five-year high, further evidence that our that our health-care system has suffered a precipitous collapse. And yet, incomprehensibly, the Trudeau government decided 2022 was a good time to bring in a million new immigrants ... CLICK HERE for the full commentary

... since Iain Rankin’s Liberals were defeated in the 2021 provincial election in Nova Scotia, Furey’s Liberals have been the only provincial Liberals forming government anywhere in Canada. (The Liberals run a territorial government in Yukon.) That the prime minister has so few friends around the premiers’ table is actually a pretty rare occurrence ... CLICK HERE for the full story

This morning I received a note from Premier David Eby and the BC NDP outlining what they said were eleven ways they were helping British Columbians with costs. If you haven’t seen it yet, here’s the list : 1.    Increasing the BC Family Benefit ... NOPE , doesn’t apply 2.    Raising the minimum wage ... NOPE , doesn’t apply 3.    Making prescription birth control free ... NOPE ... doesn’t apply 4.    Providing a renter’s tax credit ... NOPE , doesn’t apply   Helping with costs and fees: 5.    Ensuring ICBC rates are more affordable ... finally, one for me 6.    Expanding affordable childcare ... NOPE , doesn’t apply 7.    Removing unfair tolls on the Golden Ears and Port Mann bridges ... NOPE , doesn’t apply 8.    Increasing the climate action tax credit ... I think I get this , but I’m certain I pay far more in taxes than I receive back 9.    Making transit free for kids 12 and under ... NOPE , doesn’t apply 10. Freezing ferry fares ... N

It’s been just over two years since the BC NDP government passed Bill 22, a controversial rewriting of the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act. The bill brought in major changes to the FOI and privacy regime in this province, some positive (penalties for destroying records related to an FOI request) but many negative (imposing an application fee for the first time, eliminating the requirement for domestic data storage). The timing of the bill was also controversial. The government rushed it through in the fall of 2021. This was despite the fact a special committee of the legislature had already been established in June 2021 to carry out a review of the FOI and privacy legislation as required by law ... CLICK HERE for the full story

A commentary from Tom Shypitka, MLA Kootenay East ... BC United Critic for Energy, Mines & Low Carbon Innovation As the Shadow Minister for Energy, Mines and Low Carbon Innovation for the past seven years, I have seen an unravelling of our once proud and world leading energy production and natural resource extracting industries.   The great quest to decarbonize our planet has been muddied with political ideology, misinformation, false promises, and politically driven climate targets.   The Clean Energy Act was passed by the former BC Liberal (now BC United) government in 2010. Then Premier Gordon Campbell had a vision for B.C. to become a leading North American supplier of “clean, renewable, low-carbon electricity.” This act would pave the way for B.C. to make unprecedented investments in renewable energy.   A couple highlights in the act was the provision that B.C. procure 93% of its energy from “clean,” or renewable, resources. The act also contained a “self-suffici