How to mitigate job loss, fear and uncertainty for workers as British Columbia navigates its post-pandemic recovery
COVID-19 represents the largest labour market disruption in British Columbia’s history. Uncertainty and fear among businesses, workers and customers about the pandemic affect how we grasp the new normal and move beyond the crisis. They will only resume their lives and work when they feel safe, and see very low-risk pathways back to commerce and…
Getting communities engaged in a potential project would allow the northern region to take control of its economic destiny
A pipeline to the Port of Churchill would revitalize the long-neglected economies of northern Manitoba and northern Saskatchewan. But the ultimate success of this proposed project to Churchill, Man., will depend on the involvement and support of Indigenous communities in Manitoba and Saskatchewan. This alternate route to get oil to ocean tankers was proposed when…
Thoreau, Gandhi and King understood that going to jail was a reasonable price to pay for protest. Why don’t we accept that today?
In 1849, American philosopher Henry David Thoreau was angry at his government’s actions in the Mexican-American War and at the continued legality of slavery in the United States. He published an essay entitled Civil Disobedience, in which he stated that that the evils of war and slavery should be confronted by citizens through withholding their…
The process can include something as simple as discovering and using the ancient name for where you live
As we continue to hunker down in our Sunshine Coast house to avoid COVID-19, and come to emotional grips with the pandemic, it’s wonderful to have good news. We got some today. I just saw a new road sign go up in what has been called Saltery Bay since the early 1900s. Fair enough, you…
Resolving these Indigenous governance issues as well as cleaning up duty to consult policies is good for the First Nations involved as well as Canada
In January 2019, a group of breakaway hereditary chiefs from Wet'suwet'en First Nation in the interior of British Columbia erected a blockade on a remote forestry road in protest of the proposed Coastal GasLink pipeline to Kitimat, B.C. Eventually, the issues were addressed, the barricade came down and work on the site resumed. Observers worried…
Delta Hospice Society has been locked in a lengthy fight with the health authority and the B.C. government, and has now lost its funding
Directors of a Vancouver-area hospice are considering their legal options after the B.C. government abruptly yanked its funding because it doesn’t permit medical assistance in dying (MAID) on the premises. And an Ottawa lawyer engaged by the Delta Hospice Society says B.C. Health Minister Adrian Dix is simply wrong to claim the facility’s refusal to…
Clearly signs don’t work; video surveillance isn't effective; handing the culprit a bag only works if you witness the event; and enforcement is hit or miss
When my husband and I set out to find a new home in a new community, we were delighted to buy a wonderful acreage that backed onto a municipal trail head. It seemed perfect. Since I work from home, I’d be able to get a daily walk in without ever having to jump into the…
Divide-and-conquer tactics have been used by colonial powers for hundreds of years to get Indigenous groups to succumb to their wishes
Canadians take pride in our identity as a peaceful nation that celebrates diversity. These are indeed wonderful ideals but to be authentic, they need to be lived. In 1990, a community in Quebec wanted to expand its golf course and claimed the right to traditional Indigenous lands. The Mohawk people blocked this process and when…
Over the past three decades, a small palliative care hospice in suburban Vancouver has raised millions of dollars and provided hundreds of thousands of volunteer hours to benefit British Columbia’s health system. Now, the Delta Hospice Society must drop its refusal to provide medical assistance in dying (MAID) for qualifying patients in its care. Or…
Oil sands extraction declined largely because of shutdowns and maintenance of some production facilities. Crude oil extraction also falls
The natural resources sector in Canada continues to be challenged. A new report released Friday by Statistics Canada said real gross domestic product (GDP) of the natural resources sector fell 2.2 per cent in the third quarter, following a 2.8 per cent rise in the second quarter. The federal agency said the decline was largely…
Part 1: Defining the attributes of your successful retirement community
Who says you have to go on living in the same location when you retire? The choice is yours. City or country retirement is ultimately a personal decision. But it draws significantly on your prior life, and the skills and personal attributes you can bring to the retirement community you choose. How you retire is…
TC Energy Corporation – the former TransCanada – has sold off a nearly two-thirds share of a controversial pipeline that will carry natural gas from northeast British Columbia to a contentious LNG export terminal in Kitimat TC Energy announced it will sell 65 per cent of the Coastal GasLink Pipeline Project to private equity firm…
Whales, glorious sunsets, warming fires, close-knit family, a hand-cut tree, elaborate toasts – and plaid!
[smartslider3 slider=77] The humpback whales were still breaching and blowing as we crossed by ferry from Little River to Powell River on our way back to Skelhp after a week with friends. In mid-December, the big ocean visitors begin their travels south, and once again the local orcas and sea lions become the dominant residents…
The B.C. government’s claim in the court challenge to medicare that waiting lists don’t harm patients is nothing short of ridiculous
After years of political debate and public frustration, it seems the future of Canadian health care may now depend on the outcome of a decade-long legal battle that’s now in the hands of a B.C. Supreme Court justice. The plaintiffs are Dr. Brian Day, the private Cambie Surgery Centre and four British Columbians who have…
The days are increasingly short and grey, but nature is on full display everywhere we look
I’m looking out of our living room window on a predominantly grey sea and landscape. The eye first trips over some close-in treetops before it encompasses five km of Jervis Inlet, leading to Scotch Fir Point in the mid-distance. The bulk of Texada Island beckons in the further background, hiding whatever it wishes behind its…
COVID-19 represents the largest labour market disruption in British Columbia’s history. Uncertainty and fear among businesses, workers and customers about the pandemic affect how we grasp the new normal and move beyond the crisis. They will only resume their lives and work when they feel safe, and see very low-risk pathways back to commerce and…
