Policy Search

Ensuring that all residents of BC can depend on reliable emergency services is vital to the province's growth and prosperity. Over the past ten years, increasingly frequent major events such as floods and wildfires have highlighted multiple issues for governments, communities, First Nations, and first responders. At the same time, labour issues, restraints on how emergency personnel and first...

The Agriculture Land Reserve has long been a key tool for protecting farmland in British Columbia. While ensuring the viability of precious agricultural land for future generations is critical, BC’s long-term food security is at risk due to barriers to allowing on-farm food processing in many of the province’s most productive agricultural areas.

The Quesnel River Bridge presents continual challenges to the movement of goods and services between Northern, Central and Southern BC. Trucks, that are not hindered by their size, must cross the hazardous bridge and drive through a size-restricted city center, creating congestion, pollution and safety concerns. With mining in the region, namely the Osisko Mine and the Artemis Gold Mine Project...

BC Ferries is about to embark on a major capital program to revitalize much of BC’s ferry fleet. Their New Major Vessels Program includes seven new ferries. BC Ferries is currently developing the Request for Proposals (RFP) for the vessel program, which it plans to release in June 2024. Currently, BC Ferries’ RFP has no significant factors valuing the benefits of local BC or Canadian involvement...

The Employer Health Tax taxes every eligible BC employer on their payroll, taxing business growth, hiring and job creation in our province. While the province has committed to increasing the exemption threshold for the tax from $500,000 to $1,000,000, this positive change only applies to businesses with under $1.5 million in payroll, and more can be done to provide cost reductions and increase...

In these complicated times of red tape and bureaucracy, businesses in Canada are finding it increasingly difficult to focus on what’s important, mainly providing goods and services to the Canadian consumer at a reasonable price. One of the main stress points in any business today can be a letter, email, or phone call from CRA regarding an issue with one of their tax returns. Many can relate to how...

The current regulatory landscape in British Columbia poses a significant challenge for companies due to the disparate disclosure requirements related to Transparency Registers, Speculation and Vacancy Tax, and Canada's enhanced mandatory disclosure rules. The lack of harmonization in reporting criteria, filing timelines, and data elements creates an administrative burden for businesses, leading to...

The race to create a COVID-19 vaccine through collaboration across industries and pharmaceutical companies has exposed more cybersecurity risks than ever before. COVID-19 is not going to be the last pandemic we will face, but it has taught us valuable lessons about the inadequacies of our cybersecurity, which need to be addressed. In research and development, clinical trials, manufacturing and...

“The Community Charter provides the statutory framework for all municipalities in BC except the City of Vancouver…and sets out municipalities' core areas of authority…”85F Within this framework, grants or financial support to businesses is expressly forbidden.86F This provision hampers municipalities who wish to support their business community during times of crisis.

Organized criminal (OC) groups have two main uses for marine ports: profit-oriented crimes that generate revenue, such as importation of illegal drugs, counterfeit goods (tobacco products, pharmaceutical products, clothing), and undocumented immigrants and cargo theft; and tactical support crimes to facilitate their profit-oriented activities. This involves corruption of, and to a lesser extent...