Tag Archives: Wealth Disparity

Business

Rethinking Canada’s ‘Productivity Problem’

By Isaac Phan Nay, The Tyee, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

Jasmine Ramze Rezaee wants you to think twice when Ottawa says we have a productivity problem.

Prime Minister Mark Carney links weak productivity to rising costs.

“Our long-standing weak productivity is making life less affordable for Canadians,” Carney said in a speech in May. “It’s beginning to strain our government finances and starting to put at risk the social programs on which Canadians rely.”

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Politics

Green Party Candidate Jessica Wegg talks about the coming election

 Election fever seems to be in the air again and in the first of a series of interviews with the candidates,  Cortes Currents talked with Jessica Wegg the Green Party candidate  for North Island-Powell River (NIPR).   

“We have a chance now to show the world that we will not follow the trend of electing conservative right wing governments out of fear because  we’re told that things are bad. We know that things are bad in some ways, but things are amazing and wonderful in so many other ways,” she exclaimed. 

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Cost of Climate Change

Turning Down the Heat Part 2: Change Your Life Bulb

By Carrie Saxifrage and the Climate Action Network

In early July of 2024, a small group of Cortes Islanders, supported by Friends Of Cortes Island (FOCI), screened the film “How to Boil a Frog” for the community. You can watch the film here. The film is about the five-pronged problem life on Earth is currently facing — overpopulation, a war on nature, wealth disparity, peak oil (hee hee), and climate change—and offers five actions that can help—boycott Exxon, change your “life bulb” (reduce consumption), a change of heart, one kid per couple, and kick some ass. 

This article is the second in a series focused on each of these five solutions. You can read Maureen Williams great first article on a change of heart here. This second article is about changing your “life bulb.” The term refers to the end of Al Gore’s 2006 movie An Inconvenient Truth in which minor suggestions, including a switch to LED bulbs, float across the screen. The disconnect between the size of the problem and the size of the suggested solutions was so very obvious. It still is. Whether or not you change your “life bulb,” it is still important to “Kick Some Ass.” That will be the next article in the series.  

Continue reading Turning Down the Heat Part 2: Change Your Life Bulb →
Cost of Climate Change, Environment

Turning Down the Heat

By Maureen Williams and the Climate Action Network

In early July of 2024, a small group of Cortes Islanders, supported by Friends Of Cortes Island (FOCI), screened the film “How to Boil a Frog” for the community. The film is about the five-pronged problem life on Earth is currently facing — overpopulation, a war on nature, wealth disparity, peak oil, and climate change—and offers five actions that can help—boycott Exxon, change your “life” bulb (reduce consumption), a change of heart, one kid per couple, and kick some ass. This article is the first in a series focused on each of these five solutions from the film, and more. You can learn more about the film and the filmmaker, Jon Cooksey, here and here. You can even watch the film, here.

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Uncategorized

Would Universal Basic Income work in the SRD?

One of the most controversial ideas being considered in the SRD’s Poverty Reduction Plan is advocating for a Universal Basic Income (UBI). (A higher level of government would need to implement this.) There are numerous examples showing that UBI is an effective way to raise people out of poverty. The problem is too much of the financial impact may fall on the diminishing middle class ($50,000-$135,000 per anno in BC) rather than the rich who appear to be increasingly growing richer.    

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