The Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives is issuing yet another report in support of the NDP election campaign. What’s the real story about this NDP front group?

The Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA) is a union-funded "research institute" that has released a series of reports attacking the BC Liberal government.

NDP-Funded: The CCPA received over $400,000 in taxpayer money from the NDP between 1993 and 2001.

• The CCPA received a $200,000 grant from the NDP government just 18 days before the NDP called the 2001 election – for a 5-year study of "inequality" and "social justice."
• The CCPA received another $200,000 over 8 years (1993 through 2000) from the NDP government for subscriptions, etc. Even ICBC put up $24,000 for CCPA publications.

Union-Funded: The CCPA is partly funded by a grant from the Columbia Foundation whose board of directors is made up of union leaders such as:

• Ken Georgetti (president, Canadian Labour Congress);
• Jim Sinclair (president, BC Federation of Labour);
• George Heyman (president, BCGEU);
• Barry O'Neill (president, CUPE);
• John Shields (past president, BCGEU); J
• Jerri New (president, Office & Professional Employees' Union);
• and other unions.

Union-run:

• The Chair of the CCPA-BC is Marcy Cohen, an Hospital Employees' Union (HEU) researcher. The HEU is spending millions of dollars to defeat the BC Liberal government.

Other BC directors include:

• Phillip Legg (BC Federation of Labour, Policy Development Director);
• Marjorie Griffin-Cohen (NDP appointee to the board of BC Hydro and a Director of the BC Citizens for Public Power);
• Ken Novakowski (former president, BCTF); and
• Mike Dumler, who ran CUPE's "first province-wide day of political protest opposing the BC Liberals…"in 2003.
• Two HEU researchers authored the recent CCPA report on seniors' care.

What Do They Stand For?

• This is the same group that in 2003 released an "alternative budget" for BC that included 27% increase in taxes and deficits until 2010.