Employment and labour

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Preventing future Gold Rivers requires thinking outside the box

When the workers at the ill-fated Gold River pulp mill took their severance packages last week, it marked closure on a frustrating struggle to save the mill. The workers are now moving on and there is little point in continuing the polemic over the mill's viability or what government could or should have done.

Cutting Costs

Behind the Brain Drain hype

  Those calling for tax cuts for upper-income earners have found a new cause. For the past year, media reports, newspaper columnists and "think tank" studies have all been sounding the alarm. The latest catch-phrase of the neo-conservative project: the Brain Drain.

Checks and balances

Canadians who care about democratic diversity in their daily newspapers should support the striking journalists at the Calgary Herald. Their struggle for reasonable job security and against managerial interference in news decision-making has much more than local significance.

Balancing two essentials

The provincial government's recent decision to legislate CUPE school support staff back to work raises once again the issue of what constitutes an "essential" service, and when the need for public services should take precedence over the right to strike. The debate isn't going to go away--the provincial Liberals have promised that, if elected, they would declare education an essential service, forever foreclosing on the right of education workers to engage in legal strike action. There is, however, a disturbing double-standard plaguing the essential services debate.

Minimum wage increase is good public policy

The BC government has asked for input on whether or not to increase the minimum wage, and business groups have responded with a three-pronged attack. First, they declare, minimum wages are "job killers". Second, they largely help kids from well-to-do families doing part time work. Third, we should consider tax credits instead.

BC forest industry needs to do more with its wood

In the last two weeks, three news stories on BC's forest industry told a pretty compelling story about the state of the industry and its future. The first was the release of PricewaterhouseCoopers' (PwC) annual report on the forest industry. The main message was the same one we've heard ad nauseum the last half of the 90s: the industry is over-regulated, making BC a high-cost province to operate in. Another conclusion was that allowing BC forest companies to access more wood would increase profitability and jobs.

Government action is needed to achieve women's equality

On October 15, women, children and men will take to the streets in more than 140 countries in the World March of Women. Marchers will demand an end to poverty and violence against women. On the eve of the march, Premier Ujjal Dosanjh and Joan Smallwood, Minister of Women's Equality, are co-hosting a conference in Vancouver on women's economic equality. As an attempt to raise the profile of women's issues in BC, this event is necessary and timely. There is, however, an urgent need to move from talk to action.

Just give us the money

There is something so disheartening about having to argue in favour of pay equity in the 21st century. How can this still be a controversial issue? Yet it remains so here in B.C. Business interests are outraged that the government intends to introduce pay equity legislation. Their main worry? It will cost them money. Is this a reason NOT to have modern pay legislation? No. Of course it will cost businesses money. And, they should pay it -- after all, they have profited by underpaying women since the province began.

Des intentions cachées derrière la pression pour se débarrasser du Régime de Pensions du Canada, révèle une étude

Ottawa — Les critiques du régime de retraite universel du Canada veulent nous faire peur. Voilà les accusations lancées par un expert bien connu dans le domaine des pensions.

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