|
Economics, Policy and the Future of Grizzly Bears in BC
In 2003, the Centre for Integral Economics was contracted by the Raincoast Conservation Society to do what no one had done before - analyse revenues derived from British Columbia's grizzly bear resource. We found that grizzly bear viewing ecotourism is conservatively worth $6.1 million annually in BC, while the grizzly hunt brings in only half as much. The argument to maintain the hunt as an economic benefit is flawed. Download complete report.
Application of Market Tools to Airshed Management
In this project we were contracted by Environment Canada to undertake a survey of ENGOs in the Lower Mainland, and to make recommendations regarding the coordination of these groups, and the application of market tools to airshed management. This project demonstrated and reinforced our position as a broker of economic ideas between government and the environmental community of the National Marrow Donor Research Program.
Financing First Nations' Sustainability Enterprise
We recently collaborated with Common Ground Consulting to prepare a report for the department of Indian and Northern Affairs Canada. The report, to be presented to the Aboriginal Capital Corporations of BC, is an initial scoping of the interest and opportunities for developing an equity-financing fund for First Nations. This project was an important convergence of our interests in corporate social responsibility, sustainability and market tools, and community economic development.
Sustainability Indicators: Framework & Recommendations
The BC Environmental Network (BCEN) is the principal umbrella organization for environmental organizations in British Columbia. They asked the Centre for Integral Economics to design a conceptual framework and a set of preliminary recommendations for the development of a set of sustainability indicators. This project was an important opportunity to build closer ties with the BCEN and its members, and to introduce to them some of our ideas around economics and sustainability.
Municipal Tax Shifting
Local governments have both the opportunity and the flexibility to reorient their fiscal tools for sustainability. The Municipal Tax Shifting Program was launched in 2000 to take advantage of this critical locus for implementing on-the-ground tax-shifting policies. Real life tax-shifting success at the municipal level will provide powerful leverage for other jurisdictions and higher levels of government. For the past year and a half, the Centre for Integral Economics has focused on developing and testing a comprehensive, accessible and useful toolkit, including a tax modelling tool and supporting materials for local governments. Recently, we have been working with the City of Winnipeg to create genuine tax shifts at the municipal level.
New Economy Program
The goal of the New Economy Program (1998-1999) was to educate and empower that sector of British Columbia's economy that stood to gain the most from a broad environmental tax shift. We worked closely with the new economy sectors, particularly environmental industries and high tech. These sectors, which tend to be innovative and to value the natural amenities of the province, also tend to invest more in human resources than in energy and materials. Accordingly, these sectors would gain from a shift in taxation away from labour and investment, towards taxing energy and waste. This program reflected our broad intent to move the taxation burden off of "goods" and onto "bads," while maintaining overall revenue neutrality.
Environmental NGO Tax Shift Working Group
The Centre for Integral Economics brought together and facilitated a broad-spectrum provincial working group, that submitted a list of tax-shifting priorities to the NDP provincial government. This submission subsequently became an important reference for the government's Green Economy Secretariat agenda. Our submission, and the organizational interests it represented, were also significant in ushering in Canada's first legislated provincial tax shift, around phasing out industrial "beehive" wood burners.
|
