Gwen and I raised three adult children in North Vancouver. Each lives in this community, as do our seven grandchildren. Before retirement, I worked in accounting and small business management. Since 2009, I have published commentary about public issues at IN-SIGHTS.CA.
I was recently at a meeting where North Vancouver District Council member Jim Hanson talked about the need for reform of Metro Vancouver governance. He illustrated his comments by comparing wastewater treatment projects in Victoria and North Vancouver. One came in more or less on-time and on-budget; the other is now budgeted at 3.5x the original estimate and may begin operating almost a decade late.
I don’t know why private industry should object to government involvement in megaprojects. Eventually, and inevitably, taxpayers get hosed, while the world’s wealthiest citizens grow even wealthier. Governments spend billions acquiring, building, and improving assets. Then the privatizers gain power and sell completed, publicly financed assets to private interests. The public shoulders the risks; private investors inherit the opportunities.
A discussion of policies that could result in more affordable housing.
Dr. Graham Farrell served as Research Chair in Environmental Criminology at Simon Fraser University before moving to the University of Leeds in 2015, where he is Professor of Crime Science. “Environmental criminology” is not a common term. I initially imagined academics studying people like ExxonMobil’s Darren Woods, Chevron’s Mike Wirth, or Saudi Aramco’s Amin Nasser. But SFU offered a different explanation:
In modern times, the Canadian union movement has lost influence but not relevance. It is easy to forget that unions enabled a broad middle class. Workers in unionized company towns in BC’s 20th century resource economy set the bar for others. They showed how positive full employment with good wages enables high quality life for the entire community.
Yesterday, a black bear was in our yard, but when it noticed humans, it scurried up the Seymour River western escarpment behind our home. Today, another bear visited. This time daughter Jennifer had a camera ready.
A friend of mine is deeply engaged with his local government. He is, by his own admission, a royal pain in the ass to people at city hall. His theory is that municipal politicians are the most accessible elected officials and the ones most likely to respond directly to the views of their constituents. I share his hope that people will become involved in October’s local elections. Talk to the candidates. Attend public meetings. Tell them what matters to you—and ask what they intend to do about it.
BC Hydro has released its annual report. Several realities stand out. Electricity demand from residential, commercial, and light industrial customers remains flat while power delivered to heavy industry has increased. These customers are paying well below BC Hydro’s marginal cost of electricity.
Residents of a condominium for people aged 55 and older have been locked out of their homes for more than two and a half years following a fire in February 2024. Disputes and delays involving nine insurance companies have prevented them from returning. Five residents have died while waiting. Meanwhile, the surviving owners continue paying $350 a month in strata fees for homes they cannot occupy.
In just three months, the value of Norway’s Government Pension Fund Global has increased by C$1.42 billion—the equivalent of C$25,000 for every man, woman, and child living in Norway.
Denmark and Sweden are the only two industrialized countries likely to attain net-zero. Canada will not. The Canadian Net-Zero Emissions Accountability Act was passed in 2021, but it has no enforceable requirement that the country actually achieve net zero by 2050.
…the largest intellectual property theft in American history. AI companies are training their models on stolen material, period. And we’re not talking about these companies simply scouring the internet for what’s publicly available. We’re talking about piracy…
Driving through the Fraser Valley on the Trans-Canada Highway, I encountered several separate improvement projects. Vehicles would stop at one roadblock, resume travel, reach another, stop again, and then repeat the process. I wondered why highway engineers didn’t put larger crews to work in a single section, finish that part of the road, and then move on to the next…
PPoliticians tell us that more pipelines are needed to carry bitumen and natural gas and strengthen the Canadian economy. But these long tubes carry something else as well: tens of billions of dollars of public money. A new Alberta-to-BC pipeline will cost more than $100 billion, according to the CEO of Imperial Oil Ltd.
Friends and family can drift apart for all sorts of reasons—pride, misunderstandings, embarrassment, or simply the passage of time. But when a relationship once mattered, it may still be worth recovering. Smile when you do it. You’ll likely smile afterwards.
Gas production in BC increased by 264% between 2025 and 2000. We might expect that government revenues would rise by roughly the same amount. However, that has not happened. Under Clark, Horgan, and Eby, the government of British Columbia has been determined to subsidize the production of fossil fuels. Some of those subsidies are obvious; some are hidden.
Tom Nichols is a staff writer at The Atlantic and a contributor to the Atlantic Daily newsletter. He is a professor emeritus of national-security affairs at the U.S. Naval War College, where he taught for 25 years, and an instructor at the Harvard Extension School. ‘Trump’s Irrationality Is Dangerous’ by Nichols deserves widespread notice.
The feedback dynamics involved are precisely what climate scientists have long warned about: hotter and drier conditions created by a warming climate make forests more combustible, while burning forests release carbon that further accelerates warming. Current trends suggest this dangerous “feedback loop” is gaining momentum.
After college, Ronald Garan joined the United States Air Force and became an F-16 pilot and later an astronaut. In 2008, he flew aboard Space Shuttle Discovery on its 35th mission. Three […]
Advanced artificial intelligence is being rapidly deployed, making knowledgeable people nervous about how it may change almost everything in our world. These are things that should concern us about AI. Some are already happening; some are potential risks.
Restoring old relationships? Are human physicians still needed? https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/article-abstract/2852952 Will Autonomous AI Exceed AI-Aided Physicians as the Best Medical Care?…
That 78% perception-vs-reality gap is wild but not shocking given how local news skews toward the rare violent incident over…
For reasons unclear Donald Trump has decided to threaten voters. In North Carolina he said the following... https://www.rawstory.com/trump-midterms-2677870795/ President Donald Trump told…
Mr. McCutcheon’s essay? Brilliant and thorough analysis. Unlike our politicians juggling contradictory what-ifs, his example doesn’t stop with what might…
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Believe me, taxpayers in Greater Victoria grouse about having to pay for our treatment plant, but I suppose we were…