Tag Archives: Lower Mainland

Business, Food

Measuring Workforce Exposure to the US Tradewar

A new interactive dashboard on the Institute for Research on Public Policy website measures the vulnerability that specific Canadian communities have in the US trade war.

“Canada’s reliance on the U.S. market has left certain communities vulnerable to shifting trade policies, including tariffs and protectionist measures,” explained Rachel Samson, the IRPP’s vice-president of research.

“Our dashboards can help identify which communities could experience challenges if tariffs are applied to sectors they depend on, allowing governments to work with the community to plan effective responses.”

The data is organized around Canada’s 293 census divisions.  

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Cost of Climate Change

On carbon tax, BC Greens stand alone

Canada’s National Observer, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

BC Green Party Leader Sonia Furstenau is doubling down on her commitment to the carbon tax before the Oct. 19 election. 

The party will clamp down on the oil and gas industry, close loopholes on pricing carbon pollution, and provide larger rebates to individuals and families, Furstenau announced Wednesday. 

Furstenau criticized Conservative Party of BC Leader John Rustad for denying the climate crisis is a problem and accused the BC NDP of tinkering with the carbon tax system it inherited to grant subsidies to the oil and gas industry. 

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Community

Reflections on the eradication of Canada’s middle class 

A recent article in the Capital Daily outlines how the housing crisis is eradicating Victoria’s middle class. 

Throughout British Columbia, the average rent and mortgage payments exceed what many people can pay. 

“What’s been happening over the last 10 years is that the share of homes bought by first-time buyers has been declining, and their market share has largely been taken over by investors,” said John Pasalis, president of Toronto-based Realosophy Realty, told CBC News.

He added that, contrary to what many believe, the lion’s share of the investors were domestic owners who purchased a second home as an investment. 

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History, Transportation

Antique Car Club: Lunch stop at the Cortes Island Museum

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Seven antique cars pulled into Mansons Landing shortly after 12:30 on Wednesday, June 21.

There was a lot of anticipation prior to to their arrival.

Melanie Boyle, Managing Director/Curator of the Cortes Island Museum, explained, “So far as I know, we’ve never had 15 vintage cars arrive here on the island. We as a museum celebrate histories of various sorts and histories of the island, old technologies and looking back at a day when people traveled differently, slower forms of transportation and different speeds in the world. This is really a celebration of that and, I’m sure it takes a special sort of person who has a devotion to restoring older things and a value of not trashing things and always looking for the newest, but respecting something of the past and with it heritage and stories that go along with it.”

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Community

Sex Workers on Making Their Lives Better

By Brishti Basu, The Tyee, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

Sex work is the most fulfilling job Rae has ever had. Colleagues and clients in Victoria were more welcoming than other professions had ever  been to a transgender and autistic woman like herself.

Her first professional job  after moving to Victoria seven years ago involved discrimination — she  was asked to wear a man’s shirt, for example — low paycheques and  mistreatment. 

“One day, I was just like, ‘Screw this I’m  running an ad,’” Rae said, deciding to explore sex work. The response  was immediate and positive.

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