As B.C.’s re-elected NDP government looks to get back to business, the province’s business community says its concerns need to be front and centre.
A coalition of major business groups have penned open letters to all of the major party leaders, calling on them to make the economy job number one when the legislature returns.
“All the economic indicators are blinking red, whether it’s retail, whether it’s the manufacturing sector, the labour market,” said Jairo Yunis, the Canadian Federation of Independent Business’s director for western economic policy.
“If we want to fix our public finances we have to grow our economy. If we want to focus on health care and education, we have to grow our economy … if we want to support small businesses we have to grow the economy.”
Yunis said the B.C. job market has contracted by 50,000 positions since April, while unemployment has climbed from five to six per cent in the same period.
At the same time, he said businesses have reported spending between $5,000 and $10,000 on security costs, and have seen their labour costs climb 22 per cent since 2019.
Business groups are calling for a package of measures they say is necessary to stimulate the province’s economy.
Those include raising the payroll cap for contributions to the Employer Health Tax to $1.5 million, action to slash permit wait times, help to offset B.C.’s nation-leading minimum wage and a review of the employer-paid sick days.
“The important thing is to action what we can control. We cannot control inflation, we cannot control interest rates — but we can control what we do around the cost of doing business and also steps to alleviate the cost of living issues that British Columbians are experiencing,” said B.C. Chamber of Commerce president and CEO Fiona Famulak.
Famulak also wants incoming ministers to be clearly directed to prioritize economic decision-making.
“Include in ministers’ mandate letters the need for every decision to be run through an economic impact lens, such that before it is launched we know that it is going to be a positive economic impact, and if the lens tells us the decision is not good economically, then reconsider.”
The most overt economic policy plank in the BC NDP’s election platform was a commitment to conduct an “ease of doing business review.”
It’s unclear what that review will look like at this point, but Yunis said it needs to happen as soon as possible, and must include the voices of small businesses.
The NDP has also committed to reviewing permit timelines for critical mineral projects.
Kamloops Centre Conservative MLA Peter Milobar said the opposition will be watching closely to ensure the NDP follows through on the commitments.
“It’s one thing to put out the political speaking points, but behind the scenes, they need to be taking meaningful action to make sure B.C. is actually a truly competitive jurisdiction in terms of attracting capital into B.C.,” he said.
“Stabilizing our businesses small and large, and making sure that moving forward it’s not just relying on those same businesses as a giant piggy bank because they do have a breaking point and they will move their businesses and their capital.”
Premier David Eby held his first caucus meeting with returning MLAs on Tuesday.
It was not immediately clear when he will appoint his new cabinet, including the critical role of finance minister. Outgoing cabinet minister Katrine Conroy did not run for re-election.