Business council highlights ongoing concern with public vs. private sector growth

While a record number of people have left British Columbia in recent times, a new report highlights the growth of the province’s public sector in recent years in contrast to a largely stagnant private sector.

Since 2019, B.C.’s public sector has grown 39 per cent, in contrast to a 6 per cent increase to the private sector over that period.

Those numbers are highlighted in a Business Council of British Columbia report.

“There’s this Charles Dickens-like tale of two cities between what’s been happening the public sector, which has been booming – it’s been the best of times – and what’s been happening in the private sector, which has been in the doldrums,” said the report’s author David Williams, the Business Council of B.C.’s vice president of policy.

The report is being released at a time of serious economic uncertainty, with the country on edge amid a trade war with the United States.

“Governments need to be thinking about the tax and regulatory conditions that make it attractive for a company to base and build their operations in Canada and B.C.,” said Williams.

Ravi Kahlon, the minister of jobs and economic growth, was unavailable for an interview, but in a statement stuck by the NDP government’s economic performance, saying he’s proud of investments in education, health care and child care.

“We’ve added nearly 200,000 private sector jobs since 2017, and last year we added 27,400 jobs, the second-most growth in the country,” Kahlon’s statement read, in part. “We’re also leading the country in capital investment growth per capita, and in non-residential building permit growth. And in the last year, our manufacturing sales were the most in Canada.”

“B.C. is well positioned to be the economic engine of Canada’s future, with four times as many projects on the federal government’s list of nation-building projects.”

The report highlights the consequences of the status quo. Namely, the record level of out-migration, with tens of thousands of people leaving for other provinces in recent years.

“One of my good friends who is a very successful tech executive just made the decision to up stakes and move to San Francisco,” said B.C. Conservatives jobs critic Gavin Dew. “Another moved to Cranbrook, Alberta. We’re losing some of our best and brightest…out-migration is a really worrisome trend. It’s not just about the people. It’s about the creativity, the capital and the economic initiative that goes with them.”

The report comes after word this week 350 people at the Crofton Mill on Vancouver Island will be out of a job before Christmas, and last month’s announcement from West Fraser Timber that it will close the 100 Mile House mill, leaving 165 people without work.