The News Rundown
- The BC election is heating up, and with many pollsters considering the BC NDP and the Conservative Party to be virtually tied, it's bringing more and more policy ideas to the forefront. With 2 weeks to go, it's going to go down to the wire, and with both John Rustad and David Eby making promise after promise, we're seeing a resurgence in populist conservative policies that were ignored either by the NDP or the federal Liberals, or have now seen more mainstream appeal in Canada.
- We've also seen a cancellation or dialing back of left-wing policies that just have not been working for the average Canadian. Among those is of course David Eby now flip flopping on the carbon tax, decriminalisation of drugs, and involuntary care, which we've discussed already in the previous month or so of Western Context. Next in the headlights appears to be the ban on single use plastics, with an article from the CBC surprisingly taking aim at the environmental waste of reusable grocery bags.
- In late 2022, the federal government rolled out a ban on certain single-use plastics, including checkout bags. The regulations are being contested in court, but still remain in effect. The plastic bag ban has had an unintended consequence: a proliferation of reusable bags.
- Studies suggest reusable bags must be used many times for them to have less environmental impact than flimsy, single-use plastic ones. However, many reusable bags don't get reused, and wind up in landfills — as they're difficult to recycle.
- Part of the onus is on shoppers to remember their bags. But environmentalists say retailers must do their part by offering circular, in-store solutions, like programs where customers can return unwanted bags or pick up used but cleaned, reusable ones.
- So far, major retailers haven't bought in, because profits from reusable bag sales are getting in the way. Renee Lundahl, co-founder of U.S. based, GOATOTE, a company that offers reuse programs says that "Reusable bags are a huge, easy profit revenue generator. I have been told directly that reuse programs for this particular product disrupt the profitability that they receive from [bag sales], and they are just not interested in disrupting that."
- The reusable shopping bag business is booming. Market research company Zion estimated the global market was worth around $11 billion US in 2023 and projected it will rise to $15 billion US by 2032. In a statement, Zion said it expects retailers will benefit the most from the market growth.
- In July, the BC government mandated that retailers charge customers at least $2 for new reusable bags. The high fee might help some shoppers to remember to bring their bags. However, the regulations only suggest — not mandate — that retailers use the proceeds to invest in circular bag programs. All it has done is cause corporate profits on reusable bags to skyrocket.
- Counter this to the BC Conservatives, where leader John Rustad said he would restore shopping bag choice, end bag fees at the grocery store, and bring back plastic straws and cutlery, saying: “The ban on plastic straws has been nothing but a nuisance for families and businesses across B.C. It hasn’t achieved any significant environmental goals, but it has certainly made life worse for people.”
- It's a noble goal to want to protect the environment, but doing so by charging consumers more for an environmentally damaging product while letting big multinational grocery corporations profit even more off of shoppers is not a good plan.
- While many might look at this single use plastic announcement by Rustad and scoff, saying there are more important things to worry about like affordability, especially grocery affordability need to realize that this actually does address that. It's clear that reusable bags were a well-intentioned idea but like many ideas the NDP have brought it, have not made life better for British Columbians.
- Supplementals:
- This past week Edmonton City Council approved its new district policy and plans for 14 districts. This is called “The City Plan” that effectively implements the idea of a 15-minute city concept.
- The idea of a 15-minute city is one where at its core everyone should be able to access all major amenities within 15 minutes by walk, bike, transit, or car.
- To accomplish this the cities are often divided into subdivisions or districts. Each district is then able to be built and developed based on a cohesive design and what works best for that area.
- The reality as it stands right now is that most cities in Canada outside of the most egregious examples of Toronto and parts of Vancouver are already 15-minute cities.
- In my own personal experience living in Edmonton I am able to reach almost anything that I need within 15 minutes by walking or by car. Transit is of course another story.
- That’s all there is to it.
- There has of course been discussion online as to whether or not the true goal of a 15 minute city is to implement social control and capitalize on a social credit system.
- There have been stories that under the 15-minute city design plan one would need pieces of identification or a certain credit score to move freely quickly between the districts involved.
- Edmonton City Council was very clear in discussions this past summer that that would not be the case and included that the District Policy and District Plans, “shall not restrict freedom of movement, association, and commerce in accordance with the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms."
- Many councillors and even the mayor were downright dismissive and belittling of the people who spoke to council with such concerns.
- Mayor Sohi felt it unfortunate that people had been impacted by misinformation and other councillors wished that they could have spent the time on other matters rather than debating that clause that was inserted.
- The correct action by City Council at the time should have been to bring these people along for the discussion rather than suggesting that it’s somehow their fault they think that way.
- To their credit, council did have an open public hearing on the matter and it’s been made clear that there will be no boundaries or ID checks required in Edmonton.
- By its inherent nature a 15-minute city District Plan should provide real choice between walk, cycling, transit, and care modes of transport.
- What we have seen in other areas and where the city moved to dabble in this approach was outright hostility to cars where it was lower on the preference table than the other options.
- Now if a specific district is to be designed to cycle or walk first then so-be-it but it should be left to compete with the others freely and people will make their own decisions.
- Case in point: don’t be hostile to personal vehicles for the hell of it when our transit system isn’t that great presently.
- There are also discussions of transit corridors that match with LRT plans but they don’t exist yet.
- We don’t know that the new valley line LRT system will work as intended and we don’t know what the transit plans going forward will be.
- There are also notes regarding Biking infrastructure. Specifically bike paths, bike lanes, and dedicated end-of-trip bike facilities in both public and private developments.
- That begs one big question: will it actually transform the city or are the city planners trying to emulate European models?
- This is something that the city can work on but there’s no clear answer at this point if there’s buy-in from the people who live in Edmonton.
- That is one benefit of the coming municipal election and the political parties it will bring. We will have a better idea of what we’re getting when we go to elect council and mayor.
- Next October’s election will provide an answer to this question of whether or not people want a design like this or if there’s going to be more focus on solving the problems we see on the ground.
- The District Plan can help solve some of the issues around transit and safety, it’s a start, but that has to be goal one.
- Ensuring our system is safe and people actually want to use it before diving into something brand new that may not have been wanted in the first place.
- Supplementals:
- BC's election has shown there is major policy difference between the two frontrunner parties of the BC NDP and the Conservatives. More than three years after the NDP switched to no-fault auto insurance for the Insurance Corporation of British Columbia (ICBC), Conservative Leader John Rustad is promising his party would reverse some of the changes and also end the insurance provider’s long standing monopoly.
- Rustad calls ICBC a “bloated monopoly” and a “broken system” and announces a new plan to end the insurance company’s monopoly across the province and open up the market. The party says it will bring fair, competitive car insurance to drivers across B.C. Rustad says everyone deserves the freedom to choose an insurance plan that works well for them.
- Rustad said: “On top of that, David Eby and the NDP have stripped away the rights of accident victims to fight for the support they need to rebuild their lives. That’s not just wrong, it’s cruel. By opening up the market, the Conservative Party will bring in new competition, which will lead to lower prices, better customer service, and improved options for all British Columbians.”
- Lawyer at Acumen Law Corporation in Vancouver Kyla Lee says that getting rid of the ICBC monopoly would minimize the restrictions that ICBC currently has.
- “Individual insurance companies would be able to make their own policies about how much they pay out, rather than the current restrictions that ICBC has, where it really limits the amount of benefits you get. That’s going to give more options to consumers who want to have affordable insurance rates, more competition in the marketplace to get better outcomes in their insurance cases.”
- Lee says she thinks the best option would be to keep ICBC as a public insurer and add the private system to it. She says deviating from the current system means people have more options but to move to a completely private system is something that she’s seen not working effectively elsewhere in Canada.
- “I think that that type of two-tiered system for insurance is good for consumers because it allows people who want to have a more competitive product that maybe costs more money, but gives them more in terms of payouts for claims. It also still allows sort of a government-subsidized insurance that would hopefully make it more affordable for individuals who don’t necessarily have the big bucks.”
- This might be the best option, which would allow for choice, while allowing for lower costs as well, with ICBC needing to pay less in payouts on cheaper plans.
- Under the no-fault system, which came into effect on May 1, 2021, drivers are still able to receive compensation for injuries suffered in a car crash, including money for lost salary and different kinds of treatment, such as a physiotherapist, chiropractor or psychologist. The difference is that reimbursement rates are set by the insurance corporation and victims of a motor vehicle accident can no longer sue for damages.
- In the years since no-fault was introduced, a number of people have told stories of not being able to afford treatment because the Insurance Corp. of B.C. wouldn’t cover the full cost or of having to pay large sums up front while hoping that ICBC would accept their claim and cover some of the costs.
- Many have also spoken out about the challenges of navigating a system without the representation of a lawyer, particularly while suffering from brain injuries or other impairments.
- Trial Lawyers president Michael Elliott believes that ICBC has been given absolute power over injured British Columbians, which he says has often been to the detriment of those seeking compensation.
- Elliott: “The NDP have created a monster in ICBC through no fault insurance. They’ve given a multi-billion-dollar Crown corporation that has a decades long history of not treating injured people fairly almost absolute power over those injured people. At the same time, they’ve taken away the ability for those injured people to sue, which is the only way that used to be able to hold ICBC accountable.”
- Eby told reporters on Thursday that the no-fault system has led to enormous savings for drivers with a $1.5 billion surplus for ICBC last year allowing it to keep rates stable and give a fourth rebate, of $110, to insurance holders. He said the shift to private insurance proposed by Rustad would hurt young drivers by making them pay higher rates.
- But the 2022 Ernst and Young report found that, contrary to the NDP leader’s claim, an 18 year-old driver in B.C. can expect to pay much more in auto insurance than someone of the same age in Saskatchewan or Manitoba.
- While some people may have seen lower rates and the rebates given have certainly given some people a reprieve, those who have been in an accident know that the current system does not benefit them. It's worth exploring to see if additional choice would be better for British Columbians.
- Supplementals:
Firing Line
- Throughout the Trudeau administration there have been multiple occurrences where there were questions about whether or not the Prime Minister and his party was being investigated by the RCMP.
- Past examples of this include the SNC Lavalin scandal and the WE-Charity scandal.
- Now we have confirmation from the RCMP that they are investigating the Liberals over the “green slush fund” otherwise known as Sustainable Development Technology Canada.
- RCMP commissioner Mike Duheme said that, “the investigation is ongoing, so I’ll limit my comments to that… There are investigations ongoing.”
- Sustainable Development Technology Canada was created in 2001 with the idea of being an arms-length government foundation to search for new sustainable green technologies and address issues related to climate change.
- Starting in 2023 SDTC board chair Annette Verschuren approved grants worth more than $200,000 to her own energy storage firm NRStor. After this it became clear that the SDTC had misspent millions more in public funds including an additional $40m in special payments to SDTC-linked companies.
- This was just the beginning as it was later found that the SDTC awarded $59m to 10 projects who were ineligible. This caused ethics commissioner Konrad von Finckenstein to find Verschuren to be in violation of ethics.
- And now the RCMP is investigating.
- Auditor General Karen Hogan also found significant lapses in the $1b fund’s governance and handling of public funds.
- Now at this point you may be wondering how the government broke the rules exactly.
- The government appears to have violated the powers of the House of Commons when it failed to surrender all unreacted SDTC records to the RCMP. This was requested by MPs on June 10.
- This assertion was backed up by House Speaker Greg Fergus who also happens to be a Liberal when he ruled on September 27th that the government did violate the request of the House.
- The Liberals are saying that they view the order as unacceptable and that it could be a violation of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms since there could be potential overlap between the legislative and judicial branches.
- There are also concerns issued by the RCMP that using documents obtained by force via the motion could be the potential breach of Charter rights that have been discussed.
- Now aside from the pearl clutching around the question of Charter rights we need to ask what direction this case could go next.
- There are many directions this could take. One of which being that the Liberal government could be held in contempt of parliament.
- They were held in contempt of parliament in June 2021 before the 2021 election to do with the government refusing to provide information on the fired Winnipeg lab scientists. Another case that was eventually investigated by the RCMP.
- The opposition parties could do that here and going back to 2011 when the Harper government was held in contempt of parliament it was wall to wall discussions in the media about how the government defied the will of the House of Commons.
- Same thing here.
- Is there any media coverage on this story? No, not really to that degree.
- The Conservatives have said that the House will “[grind] to a halt.”
- Conservative House Leader Andrew Scheer is certain of this because he said in an interview that the Conservatives “want the original production order respected”.
- He continued, “Unfortunately, the government has refused. And so, we want the documents handed over. They want to bury this in committee. They want this to be punted down and spend months out of the main focus of Parliament.”
- Debates over MPs’ privilege superseded all other business in the House.
- This case has the potential to paralyze parliament and make it even more toxic than it has become.
- Parliaments in their dying days become more toxic and difficult to work within.
- We are scheduled to have an election next October but with the way the dynamics of the House have been going, it’s not improbable to see things become so cumbersome that the Liberals shut down Parliament until next year after their key pieces of legislation pass by proroguing the house.
- This case has the ability to severely limit what the House can do over the coming months.
- The RCMP won’t confirm what they have or what they’re going to be doing with the documents but it’s clear at this point that something is happening.
- Supplementals:
Quote of the Week
“The ban on plastic straws has been nothing but a nuisance for families and businesses across B.C. It hasn’t achieved any significant environmental goals, but it has certainly made life worse for people.” - BC Conservative leader John Rustad on single use plastics.
Word of the Week
Slush fund - a reserve of money used for illicit purposes, especially political bribery.
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Show Data
- Episode Title: The Option of Choice
- Teaser: Reusable bags aren’t actually helping the environment, Edmonton looks at 15 minute cities, and John Rustad wants to end ICBC’s monopoly. Also, the House of Commons stalls over the Liberal’s money mismanagement.
- Recorded Date: October 5, 2024
- Release Date: October 6, 2024
- Duration: 1:00:15
- Edit Notes: None
Podcast Summary Notes
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