‘People are voting with their feet; they’re leaving … for the first time in 151 years, the population of the province of B.C. is decreasing’
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People are voting with their feet on B.C.’s poor economic performance and moving to another province, experts say.
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“GDP, per capita income, private sector investment, export performance, private sector employment creation, and the state of the provincial finances have all lost ground in recent years,” states a Building B.C. Right report. The report’s authors, noted economists Jock Finlayson and Ken Peacock, say that “the picture is sobering.”
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According to Finlayson and Peacock, B.C.’s “poor performance stands out in part to home grown challenges rooted in provincial policies that have raised costs, fostered uncertainty, discouraged investment, expanded the public sector at an unsustainable pace, and weakened the government’s fiscal position in a dramatic way.”
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FP West: Energy Insider
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While it’s tempting to blame U.S. trade tensions malaise, the Building B.C. Right report says “the data clearly shows the province’s economic underperformance predates the current tariff environment by several years.”
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Ryan Berlin, the vice-president of intelligence and chief economist at Rennie, says, “Add it all up and people are voting with their feet; they’re leaving and, for the first time in 151 years, the population of the province of B.C. is decreasing.”
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Finlayson and Berlin joined a Conversation That Matters about BC’s economy and why BC’s population dropped by more than 40,000 people.
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Learn More about our guest’s career at careersthatmatter.ca
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Join us Sept. 22 for Conversations Live, artificial intelligence and cybersecurity.
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