Tea & Two Slices is a long-running local news round-up by NEEDS frontman and veteran dishwasher Sean Orr, who lives and works in Gastown, deeply aware of his privilege.

Too little too late: Vancouver’s 1 per cent face hefty tax hike as B.C. seeks to quell outrage over the sky-high cost of living. While doing nothing to actually address the high cost of living. Also, “hefty tax hike”, as in now they pay almost as much as those high rollers in Nova Scotia?

They failed to raise the rates yet again. Imagine thinking $760 a month for rent, food, clothing and maybe a shred of decency was anywhere even close to being enough. Fuck the NDP forever: B.C. Budget 2020: High-income earners, pop drinkers to pay more taxes. Fucking pop drinkers. Not ending the ludicrous oil and gas subsidies to private corporations? Not increasing the speculation and vacancy taxes? Not taxing house flipping profits at 50%? Nope, pop drinkers.

She balanced the budget with a projected $227-million surplus on $60-billion in spending, but it came at the cost of little to no increases for welfare or disability rates, shelter allowances, sexual violence supports, youth homelessness, and other social services for vulnerable citizens that community organizations said should have been a priority for the NDP.

The NDP continue to be held hostage by the wrath of austerity. Policy Note says it best:

When we prioritize low-return debt reduction over high-return public investment, we are not only missing an opportunity to meet urgent needs, we are also essentially throwing money away.

Indeed. We could be seriously tackling the affordability crisis by building 10,000 units of new publicly-funded, non-market affordable housing every year in Metro Vancouver alone. And this is how we could do it: City of Montreal to exercise right of first refusal to turn properties for sale into social housing. It’s amazing what you can do when you just have the political will to do it.

Who said luxury condos weren’t good for something? Vancouver police seize millions of dollars worth of drugs and $200,000 in cash from downtown apartment.

I know, let’s make people trying to lessen their impact on the environment and health care system pay more! It’s not like the cost of living in Vancouver is totally out of control or anything: Calls in B.C. to license, insure cyclists get mixed reviews.

PTSD of the day: Vancouver should bid for 2030 Winter Olympics: former VANOC CEO.

Related: 10 years after its completion, Canada Line remains bitter Olympic legacy for Cambie Street businesses.

Meanwhile, the BC Liberals are upset over a $20 donation (which was refunded). Talk about grasping at straws!

Want to learn to protest like those working to shut down B.C. right now? So did North Van Lonsdale MLA @BowinnMa – and she charged it to B.C. taxpayers. We’ve got the receipts. pic.twitter.com/dZgdVXlxru

— BC Liberal Caucus (@BCLiberalCaucus) February 19, 2020

Speaking of protests, be wary of weaponizing disabilities in your anti-protest crusade:

Hell no you don’t speak for me @DisabAllianceBC Shame on you doing this interview.

I sit in solidarity with those who exercise their right to protest. It’s why I live in community. In spite of cowardly, respectability, single-issue focus disability orgshttps://t.co/n2eMJAfXVq

— Gabrielle Peters she/her?? (@mssinenomine) February 13, 2020

Breaking: Bill Blair says RCMP have met Wet’suwet’en conditions. Yeah no…moving your operations base to a nearby town was not one of the conditions. This is just a bait and switch.

Bonus: Canada is Fake.