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Tyee Builders Hit $50,000 Target with Days Left to Go

We’re upping the ante to support our BC election reporting, and there’s still time to join us.

Jeanette Ageson and Robyn Smith 8 Dec 2016TheTyee.ca

Jeanette Ageson is chief revenue officer of The Tyee.

Robyn Smith is editor of The Tyee.

On Nov. 21, The Tyee announced its latest foray into crowdfunded journalism, with a three-week campaign to raise $50,000 to create B.C. in the Balance: The Voter’s Deep Guide to the 2017 Election.

We were blown away by the response — in only 17 days, 793 supporters got us to our goal! There’s clearly a huge appetite for the kind of deeply researched reporting we want to do.

The $50,000 will let us get started on our voters’ guide, which will include an investigation into the network of political power players in the province and in-depth reports on the issues the Tyee Builder community identifies as critical to the May 9 election — and our future. (Everyone who gives to the campaign will get to vote on where we should direct our attention — feel free to pitch your ideas here.)

So what now? We set the target of $50,000 to cover the costs for our core election coverage and special projects.

But we want to do more. This election isn’t just critical to the province’s future. It’s a test of our democracy and citizens’ ability to get the information they need to cast an informed vote. The more we raise, the more we can do to fill that need.

Imagine what we can do with $65,000.

In fact, we’ve already asked our reporters to do just that. Here’s what they said:

Andrew MacLeod, The Tyee’s legislative bureau chief in Victoria, would travel to cities and towns of B.C.’s “other economy” — the places outside the Lower Mainland that, contrary to claims by the B.C. government, aren’t seeing jobs and growth. He’d go to places like Fort Nelson, where work is scarce and precarious and government forest policies are being blamed. People in communities across B.C. are frustrated and looking for a different way forward. What are the BC Liberals and NDP and Greens telling them?

Andrew Nikiforuk, our energy and environment reporter, said he would use the extra money to dig into the under-reported story of taxpayer-subsidized power rates for liquefied natural gas and the shale gas industry, and why public policy allows the raw export of logs.

Katie Hyslop, education and youth issues reporter, said she would love to dig deeper into myths and realities around funding for education, and create a special video series about a day in the life of a teacher in the B.C. school system.

There’s still time left on the clock — join us now and help us reach our stretch goal of $65,000 by midnight on Dec. 12.  [Tyee]

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