What We Do

With increasing frequency, governments are falling short of serving the interests of the voting public. In many cases the interests of business are placed above people. They also tell us how hard it is to find solutions to fix the few problems we face that are important to us, often telling us it needs more study.

FairPolicy calls nonsense on those excuses and provides practical policy solutions, that place people and quality of life above the concentration of wealth and power.

You're not wrong when you're dissatisfied with low quality government policy. Please read the FairPolicy suggestions collected below and start a conversation with your neighbours about getting government to pay attention to your needs again.

Declining Public Trust

Disinformation, conspiracy theories, editorial masquerading as news, campaign promises, false advertising, there are so many people working to pollute public discourse so they can win an election or sell us a product or gain more power over us or even set us against each other. These negative forms of communication serve no useful purpose in a healthy democracy.

Public trust must be protected by prohibiting false, misleading or fomenting statements, by public figures, politicians, media, businesses or advertising. This can be done through the legal framework that already covers libel, contract law, sales and marketing regulation, hate speech and uncompetitive practices.

Fair Labour Law

It is now common knowledge that building a comfortable life on single income is virtually impossible. Worse than this, the lowest wages allowed by law are no longer sufficient to live independently. For decades, business interests have systematically chipped away at the protections for the working class. This asymmetry in labour law is unsustainable as more and more people descend into poverty.

The working poor get immediate relief if all minimum wages must be a living wage, large employers are banned from using part time workers and temporary foreign workers, all employment must include annual wage and holiday progression for any worker who stays and works.

Affordable Housing

'Attempt' after 'attempt' has been made by every level of government, across the country. None of them seem to have the ability to fix the affordable housing shortage.

Affordable housing can be fixed by simply requiring every new structure over 3 units to include a complete spread of prices that match incomes in the local area, regardless of zoning.

Developers will certainly complain, but companies don't elect governments. Our analysis shows that truly affordable housing can be built in huge quantities now, if we stop developers from only building the most expensive units. By the way, the policy still includes an 18% profit for the developer. . . how much were they making before?!

Environmental Protection

Real climate action begins with simply recognizing everyone’s right to a sustainable environment and their right to defend it in civil court.

Lobbying

Let's invoke a moratorium on corporate lobbying; close the door, but ask for input when needed. The mandate of a government comes from the people not from business. We are entitled to "good Governance" in our constitution, but there has always been a bias to thinking, what's good for business is good for everyone. The truth is what’s good for people is good for well run business. What’s good for business is not always good for people. The fundamental terms of reference for our government need to explicitly put us first.