Christopher Ragan has been teaching economics at McGill University since 1989. He is also a Research Fellow at the C.D. Howe Institute where from 2010 through 2013 he held the Institute’s David Dodge Chair in Monetary Policy, and for many years was a member of the Institute’s Monetary Policy Council. From January 2009 through June 2010, he was the Clifford Clark Visiting Economist at the Department of Finance in Ottawa, where he served as a senior advisor to the Minister and other senior Finance officials. During 2004-05, he served as the Special Advisor to the Governor of the Bank of Canada. Ragan is the author of Economics (formerly co-authored with Richard Lipsey), which after fourteen editions is still the most widely used introductory economics textbook in Canada. Ragan also has a regular column in The Globe and Mail. During the mid-1990s he was the founding Editor-in-Chief of World Economic Affairs. Chris Ragan received his B. A. (Honours) in economics in 1984 from the University of Victoria and his Master’s degree in economics from Queen’s University in 1985. He then moved to Cambridge, Massachusetts where he completed his Ph.D. in economics at M.I.T. in 1989.

Colin Hansen is the President and CEO of AdvantageBC, a private-sector organization dedicated to promoting British Columbia as a centre for international business. (see – http://www.advantagebc.ca)

He was elected to the British Columbia Legislature in 1996 and served as Deputy Premier and Minister of Finance from June, 2008 to March, 2011. He also served for almost four years as Minister of Health and three years as Minister of Economic Development which included responsibility for the 2010 Olympics and the Asia Pacific Initiative.

He serves on the boards of several not-for-profit organizations: The Jack Austin School of Asia Pacific Business, Canada Japan Society, Arthritis Research Centre of Canada, and the Fraser Basin Council. He also chairs the Advisory Board for Retirement Concepts and is Chair of the Board of Directors for the Transportation Investment Corporation which is a provincial crown corporation.

Before politics, he was President and Founding Partner of Image Group, which is now BC’s largest promotional products company. Prior to that, he was the Vice-President, Finance and Administration for the Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada.

Marc Lee is a Senior Economist in the BC office of the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives. For the past six years he has been the Co-Director of the Climate Justice Project, a multi-year partnership with the University of British Columbia, funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. Marc has authored and co-authored numerous publications on climate justice, inequality, and public finance.

Merran Smith is the Executive Director of Clean Energy Canada and a Fellow at Simon Fraser University’s Centre for Dialogue. Merran leads a team that is working to transform our nation’s energy systems to reduce fossil fuel dependence and the risks of climate disruption.

During her career, Merran has brought together business, government, and civil society organizations to create innovative solutions to some of the most challenging issues of our age. She was the lead environmental architect of the Great Bear Rainforest conservation agreement.

Merran serves on B.C.’s Climate Leadership Team and Vancouver’s Renewable City Action Team. She received the Clean16 award for Sustainability and Clean Capitalism, and the Wilburforce Foundation Award for Outstanding Conservation Leadership.

Merran’s team conducts original research and modeling to understand the opportunities for Canada in the global low-carbon economy, and shares those findings with policy makers and the public via high-impact communications products.