Tag Archives: British Columbia

Basic Living Standard Arithmetic For Ottawa And All Governments

September , 2024

To: Canadians concerned about prosperity 
From: Don Wright 
Date: September 4, 2024
Re: Some Basic Living Standard Arithmetic for Governments

Governments often talk about “creating jobs,” but what they really do is choose some jobs at the expense of others. With their myriad spending, taxing and regulatory decisions, all governments try to direct job growth to different sectors – public or private, services or goods, resources or non-resources, and so on.

We all hope governments choose wisely.

It would help if they started paying more explicit attention to one factor: The impact of their decisions on Canadians’ standard of living.

A country’s standard of living is largely determined by the wages and net government revenue its tradeable goods and services sector can pay while remaining competitive against international competitors. If a company or sector is uncompetitive, it will have to either lower its wages, pay less tax or go out of business. These pressures on companies are never-ending. They determine both the wages a sector can afford to pay, and, through the interconnectedness of labour markets, average wages across the economy.

Some industries are so productive they can pay relatively high wages and significant taxes and yet remain competitive.

Industries that aren’t as productive can only pay lower wages and less tax.

Governments whose policies have the effect of moving labour from one sector to another had better pay attention to such facts.

Canadians may not like it but many of the country’s best-paying and most tax-rich jobs are found in natural resources. I was head of British Columbia’s public service. For most of B.C.’s history the province’s economic base has been dominated by natural resource industries – forestry, mining, oil and gas, agriculture and fishing. For a variety of reasons, these industries face strong political headwinds. Many groups press to constrain them and diversify away from them. The alternatives proposed include technology, film and tourism.

A few years ago, I asked officials in the province’s finance ministry to assess the relative performance of these different industries along the two key dimensions of average wages and net government revenue. In 2019-20 B.C. spent approximately $11,700 per citizen. Half the population was employed that year. So, to “break even” (i.e., have a balanced budget), the province had to collect $23,400 per employed person. If you look at things this way, each industry’s “profit” or “loss” is simply its revenue per employee less $23,400.

No such calculation will be exact, of course.

Several assumptions have to be made to get to an average “profit” or “loss” per employee. But, with that caveat, the numbers the officials brought back were telling. The industry with the biggest return to the province was oil and gas, at $35,500 per employee. Forestry was next, at $32,900. Then mining, at $14,900, and technology, though only at $900.

By this measure of profit and loss, however, film was a money loser, at -$13,400, and so was tourism, at -$6,900.

The negative numbers for the film industry reflect the very significant subsidies that B.C. (like many other provinces) provides to this sector. The negative number for the tourism sector primarily reflects low average wages per employee, which translate into relatively low personal income tax, sales tax and other taxes paid by employees.

These “profit or loss” numbers are not in any way a judgment about workers in these sectors. People find the best employment available to them in the labour market. Relative demands in that market are determined by many factors, none of which workers control. That said, if governments consciously move resources from the “profit” industries to the “loss” industries, they had better be aware of the consequences for wages, taxes and the overall standard of living.

The numbers I’ve cited were for a single year in British Columbia. The same analysis for other provinces or for Canada as a whole would likely produce different numbers – though I’d be surprised if the overall pattern were much different. Voters will draw their own conclusions about the impact on British Columbians’ standard of living from constraining the resource industries and promoting other industries instead.

Unfortunately, this type of analysis is rarely done when Canadian governments make decisions about what types of jobs they want to give preference to through their taxation, spending and regulatory decisions. They should do more of it. Ultimately, if [they] care about Canadians’ standard of living, governments need to start paying attention to the basic arithmetic of that standard of living.

Don Wright, senior fellow at the C.D. Howe Institute and senior counsel at Global Public Affairs, previously served as deputy minister to B.C.’s premier, cabinet secretary and head of the public service.

Canada Garden Ranks Seven for Most Beautiful Spring Flowers

The Butchart Gardens, Canada, is the seventh most beautiful spring flower spot in the world, according to a new study.

#7 worldwide- Butchart Gardens, Victoria, British Columbia.

With springtime on the horizon, there are beautiful gardens all around the world filled with flowers getting ready to bloomBut which of these spots deserve a place on your travel bucket list?

Looking at flower locations across the globe, our friends and experts at Japan Rail Pass analyzed a variety of factors – including Google reviews and ratings, Instagram hashtags, and the vibrancy of the flowers in spring – to give an overall score and determine which flower spots you absolutely should not miss this spring.

The most beautiful spring flower spots around the world

RankFlower spotLocationRatingReviewsInstagram hashtagsVibrancy/10Score/10
1Keukenhof Tulip GardensLisse, NL4.752,812692,1469.969.7
2Shinjuku GyoenTokyo, Japan4.636,115856,0567.299.3
3Royal Botanic Gardens, KewLondon, UK4.744,465764,9966.499.2
4Nabana no SatoMie, Japan4.45,327507,0089.349.0
5Dubai Miracle GardenDubai, UAE4.675,704139,1658.788.9
6Island MainauKonstanz, Germany4.728,977170,8957.908.7
7The Butchart GardensB.C., Canada4.721,596102,2587.548.3
8Valley of Flowers National ParkChamoli, India4.73,432115,9408.438.3
9Yangmingshan National ParkTaipei, Taiwan4.524,267129,5466.638.3
10Kirstenbosch National Botanical GardenCape Town, South Africa4.829,00351,5267.788.2

Please find the full dataset here.

  1. Keukenhof Tulip Gardens, Lisse, Netherlands – 9.7/10

Credit – Sutterstock_Marina Datsenko

According to the research, the most beautiful flower spot in the world is the Keukenhof Tulip Gardens of Lisse, Netherlands, which has exhibited spring flowers to the public since 1950. 

The tulips in spring achieve an almost perfect vibrancy score of 9.96/10, proving just how bright and colourful these stunning gardens are.

  1. Shinjuku Gyoen, Tokyo, Japan – 9.3/10

Credit – Sutterstock_Benny Marty

Next in the rankings, is the beautiful Shinjuku Gyoen in Tokyo, Japan. From the wide variety of cherry blossoms in the national garden, it is the Somei (Yoshino cherry) that bloom in spring.

The beautiful Japanese garden has over 856,000 Instagram hashtags, more than any other spot in the top 10, with people all over the world travelling to view the cherry blossoms.

  1. Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, London, UK – 9.2/10

Credit – Sutterstock_Charles Bowman

The third most beautiful spring flower spot according to the study is in London, England: The Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.

With almost as many Instagram hashtags as Shinjuku Gyoen (764,996) and 44,465 reviews, it is clear that the flowers found here, cherry blossom, bluebells, and magnolias to name a few, are beloved by many.

  1. Nabana no Sato, Mie, Japan – 9.0/10

Credit – Sutterstock_martinho Smart

In fourth place is the Nabana no Sato flower park, located in the Nagashima resort in Mie, Japan.

The spot is known for its illuminations throughout the park in winter through to spring, as well as the blooming cherry blossoms and tulips which scored a 9.34/10 for vibrancy in the study.

  1. Dubai Miracle Garden, UAE – 8.9/10

Credit – Sutterstock_Sergii Figurnyi

The fifth most beautiful spring flower spot in the study was found to be the Dubai Miracle Garden in the United Arab Emirates, which occupies over 72,000 square metres, making it the largest natural flower garden in the world.

With over 75,000 reviews since its opening in 2013, and a vibrancy score of 8.78/10, it is clear that this impressive garden deserves its place in the top five rankings.

Methodology:

1. Japan Rail Pass wanted to find out which are the best flower spots around the world to see in Spring.

2. To do this they collected data on 25 popular flower locations around the world including the following variables:

  • Google ratings and reviews.
  • Instagram hashtags (using all relevant hashtags including where applicable local language versions)
  • Vibrancy score.

3. Finally, all 4 variables were combined using weighted averages of percentrank/normalization to give an overall  score out of 10.

US Climate Scientist Pushes For Canadian Carbon Tax Serfdom?

(Calgary, Alberta) The Canadian Federation of Taxpayers (CTF) has issued a new report on global carbon taxes, showing most countries have frozen or rolled back carbon taxes, but US climate scientist James Hansen is pushing for a $210/t carbon tax in Canada by 2030Hansen’s argument is that the tax has to be high enough that people will buy into the carbon dividend (rebate to lower income households) – effectively making Canadians into carbon serfs and a carbon welfare society. CTF reports: About half of the emissions covered by carbon taxes are priced below US$10/tCO2e, according to the World Bank’s most recent State and Trends of Carbon Pricing (2019).”  Canada has more than 600 greenhouse gas reduction/incentive measures on the books, which have never been audited for effectiveness.

This begs the question of “what is a climate scientist doing dabbling in Canada’s domestic affairs on carbon taxes, pushing a carbon tax that is 21 times that of the world,” says Friends of Science Society. 

As revealed by Lawrence Solomon in the 2009 article “Enron’s Other Secret” “James Hansen, the scientist who more than any other is responsible for bringing the possibility of climate-change catastrophe to the public, was among the scientists Enron commissioned.”

Chart: How the World Puts a Price on Carbon | Statista

Enron had profited from cap and trade, but the company collapsed into a pile of ashes in 2001 due to off-book accounting and financial fraud.

None-the-less, a group of green billionaires took up the global cap-and-trade challenge, apparently working from the Enron carbon/cap-and-trade scheme model, as reported by Nisbet in 2018.  Like Enron, they have funded local and global environmental groups to agitate for policies in countries around the world, favorable to their proposed global cap and trade plan. The plans require a price on carbon with the intention of funding their trillions in vested interests in renewables.  Many of these groups are associated with the Tar Sands Campaign that has falsely created “Fear and Loathing” of the Alberta oil sands and driven a downturn in the economy.

Michael Moore’s recent movie “Planet of the Humans” revealed how this green crony capitalism is destroying the planet for no climate benefit.

Canadians now face an onslaught of Carbonbaggers – the number one being Mark Carney, now UN Climate Czar and former Bank of England and Bank of Canada governor.  Carney threatens firms with bankruptcy if they do not comply with his demands to report on climate risk and abandon fossil fuel investments.

As Robert Lyman’s new report shows: “Broken Promises: Why Renewables Offer No Resilient Recovery”, Carney is misleading the public and investors on global oil consumption and demand.

Both oil production and consumption have risen by more than one million barrels per day per year since 2012.

• Oil demand is at its highest level in history.

• In absolute terms, oil demand is growing twice as fast as renewables.

• Global oil reserves have risen throughout the period, from 1141 billion barrels in 1998 to 1730 billion barrels in 2018; peak oil is nowhere in sight. That is a 10 million barrel per day increase over the nine years.

• In absolute terms, natural gas is experiencing the fastest rate of growth of all energy sources, almost three times as fast as renewables.

• Natural gas demand is at its highest level in history.

Friends of Science Society says carbon dioxide from human industry is a nominal influence on climate change, known since the 2013 IPCC AR5 report.  The fact that financial ‘experts’ like Mark Carney are still pushing the climate-carbon dioxide catastrophe theme constitutes a violation of securities regulations related to ‘material change’.  Furthermore, as Roger Pielke, Jr. reports, climate catastrophe scenarios are the product of green billionaires pushing the ‘climate porn’ scenario, which is far from reality or business-as-usual.

“Green” groups in Canada are demanding that the new Canadian Infrastructure Bank be used to finance their green crony capitalist schemes. 

Friends of Science Society issued a request for ethics investigation into the development of the Canadian Infrastructure Bank in Nov. 2017.  The Conflict of Interest concerns expressed there are still valid in their opinion.

Evidence from Norway to Zimbabwe shows that carbon taxes have no discernible impact on emissions reduction and are simply oppressive to taxpayers and industry.  Friends of Science Society says Carbonbaggers should not be using carbon taxes as a means of creating a Canadian climate welfare state, especially not driven by foreign influences, street theatre, and deception.

See “The Roots of Global Warming”.

About

Friends of Science Society is an independent group of earth, atmospheric and solar scientists, engineers, and citizens who are celebrating its 17th year of offering climate science insights. After a thorough review of a broad spectrum of literature on climate change, Friends of Science Society has concluded that the sun is the main driver of climate change, not carbon dioxide (CO2).

Featured image by @HeatherLibby

Garmatex Textiles Uses Jade Minerals

For those of you unfamiliar with technical fabrics, you should know that the textile industry is currently experiencing a modern renaissance. With a long list of product innovations including: jade fibers that cool the skin, treatment methods that conserve water and fabrics that repel bugs, the textile industry is driving an evolution in performance materials while churning out a constant supply of new fabrics every day. Not surprisingly, competition in the industry is intense. The key to becoming truly successful in the field is to focus on improving and optimizing existing technologies to exceed current expectations of performance standards.

An early example of "technical fabric"- crucial to the beginning of high altitude, high speed, high G force flight. CP image: salimbeti.com
An early example of “technical fabric”- crucial to the beginning of high altitude, high speed, high G force flight. CP image: salimbeti.com

Garmatex Technologies, a progressive inventor of intelligent fabric solutions, is one of the companies driving this innovation. Located in Surrey, British Columbia, the team has developed over 40 unique technologies. Each developed with the intention of improving quality of life while anticipating how consumer needs change and evolve over time.

Garmatex’s focus on crafting better solutions has led them to invent a number of products. One of these solutions is their anti-microbial Bact-Out® technology. Not a new innovation, fabrics that inhibit the growth of germs have been a staple in the industry for some time. While usually produced through a topical treatment that sometimes includes silver, Garmatex’s Bact-Out® really stands out because the embedded technology does not involve a potentially harmful metal and lasts for 50 washes compared to the 20 washes that most competitors focus on achieving.

IceSkin shirt technology- the latest design from Garmatex utilize jade crystals!
IceSkin shirt technology- the latest design from Garmatex utilize jade crystals!

A more recent innovation to the market is found in materials that help regulate temperature, most often achieved through the use of a chemical cooling ingredient usually found in chewing gum. Garmatex has improved the science behind cooling comfort products by introducing IceSkin™ technology. Developed through a proprietary combination of knitting techniques, natural jade minerals and CoolSkin® quick dry filaments, IceSkin™ technology provides a longer lasting superior cooling alternative.

Science-fiction has paved the way for real-life products. One example are the stillsuits used by the Fremen on Arrakis  from the novel and movie Dune

In the area of protective garments, Garmatex has produced another new technology that encapsulates steel fibers inside of a CoolSkin® micro poly shell. This fabric, aptly named SteelSkin™, provides tremendous abrasion resistance and flexibility. Add to this the ability to be colored dyed to any shade, and this material fabric is certain to open many protective industrial and apparel applications.

In a highly competitive industry, Garmatex will continue to outperform its competitor’s because of its technical innovation and relentless optimization of its existing technologies.

 

British Columbia Elects First Green Party Legislature Member

Andrew Weaver
Andrew Weaver

GPO Green Party of Ontario leader Mike Schreiner made the following statement on the election of BC’s first Green MLA:

“I want to congratulate Green Party candidate Andrew Weaver for his historic victory in yesterday’s BC election. Andrew is the first Green ever elected in a provincial legislature in Canada.

Once again BC voters have made history two years after electing Elizabeth May as Canada’s first Green MP. I am happy and excited for Andrew and everyone pushing for a sustainable future.

I know Andrew will seize this moment to be a voice for change in BC, and he will work tirelessly serving his constituents in Oak Bay-Gordon Head.

I also want to commend Leader Jane Sterk and all BC Green candidates for a strong campaign. The Green movement in Canada is growing stronger. Mr. Weaver’s election is an inspiration for the Green Party of Ontario. GPO members are already working hard to bring change to Ontario by electing our first Green MPP to Queen’s Park.”  For the Silo, Becky Smit.