Dear Friends, Neighbours and Community Members,   British Columbia has one of the highest rates of vaccination in Canada. Over 83% of people age 12 and older in B.C. have had at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, and over 75% have received two doses. This is encouraging progress. Each person who gets vaccinated makes...

For too long, Canada has dragged its feet on the urgent need to battle climate change, a hesitancy largely caused by concerns over the economy and jobs.  It is now clear that we not only must take bold steps in this battle, but we can do this while creating good jobs and putting Canada at the forefront of the global clean...

Dear friends, We join in your excitement as we start to feel that our lives are normal again. It has been so wonderful to hug friends, see family, host a party and watch sports in person. But we are writing to caution you that COVID-19 is not gone. Wherever vaccination rates are lower we are seeing a resurgence of COVID-19 ...

A recent momentous court victory for Blueberry River First Nations could put Canada on track to realizing key Truth and Reconciliation Commission “calls to action.”   Two of those are for government to “fully adopt and implement the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples as the framework for reconciliation”...

Some job creation can be expected when BC moves to the next stage of reopening the economy in July, but labour market data show that in order to have an inclusive recovery significant inequities must be addressed, a new report released today by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, BC Office warns. In fact, the deeply...

On Saturday I took part in the send-off ceremonies in Penticton for the Syilx Caravan for the Children that went to Kamloops to grieve for the 215 children who were found in unmarked graves on the grounds of the former Kamloops Indian Residential School in the Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc First Nation. A good crowd had gathered, ...

Deep in the heart of BC’s Inland Temperate Rainforest (ITR), chainsaws are cutting irreplaceable and globally unique stands of ancient cedar-hemlock forests. The trees, which are hundreds and hundreds of years old and many one to two metres in diameter, are being  auctioned off and logged by BC’s own provincial timber agency,...

Yesterday, the Liberal government voted against an NDP motion that would provide dental coverage to millions of Canadians who struggle with the cost of dental care. The NDP proposal would have allowed 6.7 million people in Canada whose household income is less than $90,000 a year to access the dental services they desperately...

The discovery of 215 unmarked and seemingly undocumented graves of children on the grounds of the former residential school in Kamloops has produced an outpouring of grief and anger across Canada.  While the discovery was not a surprise to many people, especially to residential school survivors, it served as a shocking reminder...

Canada is in the middle of a housing crisis, and the south Okanagan, Boundary and West Kootenay areas are very much in the middle of that crisis.  This is an urgent and rapidly growing problem that demands the cooperation and priority of all levels of government. The crisis has emerged out of a perfect storm of factors....