This brief addresses the specific discussion questions posed in the Ministry’s Paper and highlights several other priority areas for reform that are essential for ensuring that app-based workers have access to the full range of rights and protections afforded to other workers in our province, including the right to collectively bargain.
Employment and labour
BC’s carbon crossroads: The Energy Action Framework takes the wrong path
Taxing land wealth for the public good: Provincial policy options
Here’s how BC should protect app-based workers
British Columbia’s regulation of dikes full of leaks and in need of overhaul
Landmark health care case spotlights problems of a profit-centred system
Some important updates from our team at CCPA-BC
2023 Gideon Rosenbluth Memorial Lecture with Ha-Joon Chang
Save the date for our annual in-person gala: Nov. 23, 2023
Previously published in the Winnipeg Free Press on August 5, 2023
VANCOUVER — Amid the rapid surge of BC's gig or "platform-based" economy, 61 leading experts in labour law, policy and economics are urgently calling on the provincial government to enforce stronger protections for gig workers. They also insist on mandating platform-based companies to fulfill the same labour and fiscal responsibilities as traditional employers.
The rise of the “gig economy” and on-demand work through platforms like Uber has ignited public debate about precarious work and what makes a “good job.”
Policymakers have been slow to respond, partly because the lack of data on the scale and impacts of precarious work makes it easier to skate around the issues.
The rise of the ‘gig economy’ and on-demand work using online platforms like Uber and Skip the Dishes has ignited public debate about precarious work and what makes a “good job.” Precarious work is not a new phenomenon, nor is it limited to the gig economy—but we don’t know just how widespread a problem it has become, mainly because Statistics Canada does not collect timely data on many of its dimensions.
The Convoy that took over Ottawa for a month last year just met outside Winnipeg this past weekend. While the right to protest is an essential part of our democracy, it is important to look critically at this movement that has harboured white supremacist, libertarian and in some cases even fascist beliefs. These ideas have originated most recently in the USA, but have a long and odious history elsewhere in the world.
A version of this article was published in the Winnipeg Free Press January 11, 2022
Living expenses in BC, particularly for housing and food, are continuing to rise for families, meaning higher wages are required for working families to afford their basic needs.
VANCOUVER - The living wage has gone up to $24.08 an hour in Metro Vancouver for 2022—the highest increase since the living wage was first calculated in 2008 and significantly higher than the rate of inflation, this year’s Living Wage Update report shows.
And for the first time, Victoria’s living wage, $24.29 an hour, is higher than Metro Vancouver’s because of the increased cost of food on Vancouver Island.