Each year, we identify key pan-provincial priorities based on our Policy & Positions Manual, BCMindreader.com insight and data, and the BC government’s mandate letters. These key issues represent major themes that will play a pivotal role in shaping B.C.’s economic future.
We work in partnership with select brands and corporate leaders in BC to build on, and strengthen, select policy positions on a vast array of subjects important to BC businesses – something only an organization of our size and scope can do.
These partnerships result in increased awareness, strengthened advocacy, and greater influence with government. Through these partnerships we add capacity and horsepower to key issues that affect a broad scope of BC businesses, and ultimately our province’s economic health and well-being.
The Local Government Act and residential zoning liberalization in BC communities
Land-use planning and economic development in rural and urban BC
UNDRIP and Indigenous entrepreneurship
The cost of doing business and prudent taxation policies
Forestry sector of the 21st Century
How BC business can help create a low-carbon economy
Building the best trade infrastructure in Canada
The Local Government Act and residential zoning liberalization in BC communities
Policy Areas: Housing supply, CACs, DCCs, access to labour
The most common word used when discussing the state of housing in British Columbia is “crisis.” Vancouver is the costliest jurisdiction to buy a house – not only in Canada but across the world. At the same time, rental markets in the Lower Mainland, Vancouver Island, and Prince George are tight– with vacancies constantly hovering around the 1% mark.
With burdensome regulation, growing homelessness, young people priced out of the market, and a rapidly fluctuating real estate sector, housing is a critical issue for both businesses and households.
Up until this point, the provincial government, and some municipal governments, have blamed high demand – particularly foreign demand – for high prices and have responded accordingly with the Foreign Buyers Tax and the Speculation and Vacancy Tax. These measures have received widespread support from the electorate, but have not done much to moderate prices, and nothing to address the central problem of having too many people wanting to live in too few homes.
Land-use planning and economic development in rural and urban BC
Policy Areas: SARA/Orcas and Caribou, Industrial Lands, Brownfield Remediation, Agriculture
Land–use planning, and economic development are inextricably linked.
Recently, species with large ranges – such as the Southern Resident Killer Whales and the Boreal Mountain Caribou—have brought up the implications of land use, species–at-risk, and economic activity.As fisheries, back country, and landscapes face possible preemptive shutdowns without adequate consultation, local businesses and their communities are seriously impacted. Government must work with our communities in order to find ways to balance socio-economic growth with environmental conservation.
Industrial land is also vitally important to our economic performance. In Metro Vancouver alone, almost a quarter of all jobs are housed on industrial lands. Over the past 30 years, BC’s growing population – and the increasing demand for housing in Metro Vancouver—as resulted in the permanent loss of zoned industrial land to residential and commercial developments. This valuable real estatenear airports, rivers, and major roadways, generates employmentand its loss will stifle future economic growth.
The Provincial Government’s Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act was a major policy development in BC this year. While many questions remainabout the potential impacts of this legislation, our network is positioned to be a leader in exploring the relationship between business development, Indigenous entrepreneurship, and reconciliation in communities across BC.
A Reconciliation Policy Group will allow our network to work collaboratively with both the Indigenous and non-Indigenous business communitiesto explore the potential benefits, impacts, and opportunities that accompany this new legislation.
The cost of doing business and prudent taxation policies
Policy Areas: Tax Competitiveness, VAT, PST Rebate on Machinery & Equipment, Access to/Cost of Labour, EHT, Property Taxes, Carbon Tax
Much of the success of BC’s economy can be attributed to the BC government’s sustained efforts since 2001 to support tax relief. BC is generally a highly competitive jurisdiction across several key business tax indicators, but BC businesses are saying the cost of doing business is increasing.
With a new provincial Employers’ Health Tax, federal changes to small business tax measures, and ongoing concern about property taxes at the local level, far greater attention needs to be paid to the tax burden facing BC businesses—and whether current arrangements jeopardize their prospects.
There are three taxes that are particularly damaging:
An increasing carbon tax that is no longer offset by corresponding tax relief
Inequitable and overly burdensome property taxes
The continued reliance on the antiquated Provincial Sales Tax (PST).
The forestry sector is critical to many regions across BC, and the challenges the sector is facing are serious. In 2019, our network highlighted the unique concerns of the forestry sector in regions across the province, during our regional consultations with the BC government’s senior civil servants.
Building on our engagement to date – and looking to harness dialogue about the forestry sector–our network is working to help prioritize the issues and create a path forward for the industry.
The challenges facing our forestry-related businesses are complex and multifaceted. This network will help prioritize some of the issues and hopefully a path forward as a network that can help/support forestry in BC.
Engaging the business community is essential in successful climate change actions in BC—including small businesses. However, too often small businesses are shut out of government environmental programs because of their scale, complexity, and up-front funding requirements. As the provincial government implements its CleanBCProgram and other environmental initiatives, it must make its programming relevant and accessible to small businesses.
Empowering the business community to increase its sustainability addresses greenhouse gas emissions and other environmental and climate concerns, and likewise improves BC’s economic competitiveness through job creation, reinvestment, and improved business resiliency.
Policy Areas: Pipelines, Provincial Highways, Bridges, Highway 1, Asia-Pacific Gateway, Transit, Goods & People Movement
BC is a small, open economy that is dependent on trade, but our ability to get goods and services to market depends on the efficiency of our trade-enabling infrastructure.
In 2007, the Government of Canada – in cooperation with the Government of British Columbia and the three Prairie Provinces – embarked on an ambitious program of capital and legislative infrastructure investments to create the Asia Pacific Gateway Canada Initiative (APGCI). The purpose was to develop infrastructure linking thePort of Prince Rupert and Lower Mainlandwith the inland supply chain of Western Canada and the rest of the continent.
The APCGI has transformed the growth of BC’s economy. But over a decade later, it’stime to reflect on AGGCI’s successes, analyze its impacts (positive and negative;intended and unintended); and encourage innovative and coordinated investments in various new potential strategic infrastructure,systems, and marketing initiatives to evolve the Asia-Pacific Gateway.
