Carole Taylor's Journal

On this edition of Journal: fresh off an election, we take on the challenge of transit planning with the newly re-elected mayor of Port Coquitlam, Brad West. I should say “resoundingly re-elected,” with almost 90% of the vote. As Chair of Metro Vancouver’s Mayor‘s Council on regional transportation, Brad West knows the complications of transit planning. In one of his pointed op-eds last year, he s...

On this edition of Journal, my guest is a drug and addiction expert, Dr. Kevin Sabet, who believes we are in the midst of a devastating addiction and overdose crisis in Canada. Why is that, when 25 years ago, Vancouver’s mayor at the time, Philip Owen, introduced the Four Pillars strategy to deal with this serious issue?: prevention, treatment, harm reduction, and enforcement. You have to have all...

On this edition of Journal: daycare. Remember the promises made by Premiers Horgan and Eby, as well as Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, for $10aDay centres for all British Columbians? Well, here we are. What happened? The facts are pretty discouraging: Roughly, only 10% of BC’s 180,000 available daycare spaces are, in fact, $10aDay. In February of this year, the government actually paused an already...

On this edition of Journal: a look at the state of our provincial economy with Chris Gardner, President and CEO of ICBA (Independent Contractors and Business Association). With the municipal elections finally behind us – an election that some analysts have dubbed the “earthquake election” due to the number of leaders who were turfed from elected office – we can now turn our attention to the provin...

On this edition of Journal, we take a look at one of the hot issues in our current municipal elections: housing. Part of the controversy comes from the push for more and more density. Top-down planning, not neighbourhood-up. The provincial government has certainly embraced this argument by forcing individual cities to build imposed numbers of housing. But as one mayor told me, “One size does not f...

On this edition of Journal, I’d like to ask if any of these following scenarios sound familiar – and these are just a few of the stories included in a report by British Columbia’s Seniors Advocate called “Reframing Ageing: British Columbians’ Thoughts on Ageism.” Over 9000 individuals participated with over 80% believing ageism is an issue in BC, with more than half saying they had been personally...

On this edition of Journal, I would like to invite you to play a game. It’s called British Columbia Politics. First of all, we had two dominant political parties: the NDP, under David Eby; and the other party, the Conservatives, were under John Rustad’s leadership – until they weren’t. Thinking he wasn’t right-wing enough, Rustad was forced out, resulting in a leadership race which Kerry-Lynne Fin...

On this edition of Journal: What do we do about Metro Vancouver? It is, after all, a major level of governance – responsible for water, sewers, housing, and more in the regional district. It’s important that it functions well and has the trust of the communities it serves. But there have been problems like the wastewater project, whose budget skyrocketed from $700 million to $3.6 billion – all on...

On this edition of Journal, I would like you to meet a man I have known for a long time: Max Cameron. As a Professor of Political Science and Public Policy at UBC, he co-founded the Institute for Future Legislators. We would often find ourselves on the same panel, not always with the same views, discussing democracy – its failings and its possibilities. What better time for Max to take a clear eye...

On this episode of Journal: a look at super-agers. The official definition is someone in their 80s and 90s, with the cognitive ability of someone 20 or 30 years younger. Most of us could come up with the basics of how to live longer besides your genes, of course: exercise, eat well, sleep at least eight hours a night, and so on. Easier said than done. What exactly do we mean by exercise? Does it h...

On this edition of Journal, we take a closer look at the federal political landscape through a pollster’s eyes. The people of Canada elected a minority Liberal government and now – poof – we have a majority government. Are people happy with that? I have always found in my research that polls give us a snapshot of where we are at and what people are thinking at a given moment in time. Obviously, th...

On this edition of Journal, we focus on the challenges facing boys and men in today’s society. We know that more women than men make it to post secondary education. But did you know that men have a 75% greater chance of overdosing on opioids than women? Men are also three times more likely to commit suicide. And men don’t tend to take early warning signs of health issues seriously before they beco...

On this edition of Journal, seniors services. For 11 years, British Columbia’s Seniors Advocate has been measuring the challenges facing our seniors. Sad to say, it’s not a pretty picture. In fact, Dan Levitt, our Seniors Advocate, says when you look at the data, we are actually going backwards – not nearly meeting today’s requirements, let alone preparing for the future as a tsunami of aging hits...

How did DRIPA, the Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act – supposedly a step forward in reconciliation – become such a political and legal mess? On this edition of Journal, we speak with a man who was a member of the British Columbia legislature that gave birth to the now-controversial DRIPA bill, Mike de Jong. No stranger to this file, Mike served as the aboriginal critic when in th...

On this edition of Journal, we ask the question: Why, in a recent front page story, was one expert quoted as saying he was not too concerned about reported job losses in the construction sector? Meanwhile, another in the same article says the current situation in terms of residential construction is the worst he has seen in decades. So, where does that leave us? To worry or not to worry? We do kno...

On this edition of Journal, we lift the curtain on the chaos of the NDP in British Columbia. If you are shaking your head in disbelief at some of the stunning flip-flops and bad policy choices of our current provincial government, you are not alone. Decriminalization: a disastrous policy now abandoned. How about the infamous Land Act, which would have given First Nations co-control with the govern...

On this edition of Journal: a closer look at the recently released forestry report that says we have to abandon the old ways of managing our forests because the status quo is not working. That statement won’t be a surprise to anyone touched by this industry, be it municipalities, First Nations, the provincial government, or the workers and their families. More than two dozen mills have closed in t...

On this edition of Journal, mayor Brad West of Port Coquitlam walks us through some of the failures we are seeing in our governments at all levels and some of the solutions. Brought up by his mother after his father died, Brad remembers the importance to the family when she finally got a union job, good wages, and good hours. Brad went on to study at the University of Victoria before taking a job...

On this edition of Journal, we open our eyes to the challenges and needs of those living in some of British Columbia’s most remote communities. We have highlighted the crisis in healthcare that many of our cities face every time their local ER is unexpectedly closed, or the maternity ward, or the pediatric unit. But imagine if you lived in a community where there may be limited road access – or no...

On this edition of Journal: the role arts and culture play in our lives. My premise is they are essential to a vibrant community. They lift us up out of our daily worries. They help form our identity. Think of New York: Broadway. Think of Paris: galleries. Italy: opera. So, why are they constantly underfunded here, especially since they are also economic engines providing jobs, not just for the ac...

On this edition of Journal, Chief Constable Steve Rai. It’s almost a year since he was chosen to lead the Vancouver Police Department into the future – the first South Asian Chief for the VPD. His story is so interesting: born in Punjab, India, he came with his family to Canada at age 5. A boy who lived next door to him in Kitsilano was unable to pronounce his name, Satwinder Singh, so he named hi...

On this edition of Journal, we try to untangle the evermore confusing issues surrounding aboriginal title in British Columbia and what it means for private property owners. My head is spinning with all the contradictory information that is out there. Private property is not affected, says our premier. Oh, maybe it is, says a judge. One pattern is emerging – decisions are being made by governments...

On this edition of Journal, a subject that is near and dear to me – governance. I know, I know. Your heart is beating faster at just the thought of this topic, but bear with me. If you are a government or a nonprofit or a business of any size, if you get the governance right, then you are on your way to success. Sadly, it is often in government that we find problems. The example that is glari...

On this edition of Journal, we join the chorus of voices repudiating British Columbia’s new budget. To be charitable, Premier Eby is having a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day (to borrow from a children’s book). Even before the actual numbers were released, one headline from Business in Vancouver magazine stated: “Eby may go down as the worst fiscal manager in BC history.” Another said, “T...

On this edition of Journal, we examine one of the received truths in British Columbia: that one of our economic advantages is that BC offers businesses and industry a plentiful supply of hydroelectric energy at reasonable cost. What could be a better pitch? It is clean energy to run your enterprise. In fact, Premier Eby has had press conferences highlighting the government’s demand that new mines,...