Adding + Subtracting

British Columbia faces a massive social, economic and environmental crisis in the form of the mountain pine beetle. Unemployment among aboriginal people in the province is more than twice that of non-aboriginal people, and commuting times in the Greater Vancouver Regional District have increased 30 per cent in the past 10 years. Nonetheless, David Black, chair of the BC Progress Board, a government-appointed independent panel of 18 eminent British Columbians, boasted in a 2005 press release that “BC moved ahead of the national average in economic growth per capita in 2004 for the third straight year.” He added, “This is good news for the province as a whole.” ...