Kinder Morgan’s Trans Mountain pipeline is just the latest resource project in B.C.to feel the wrath of environmentalists.
Some in the business community feel it’s giving B.C. a reputation as a bad place to do business.
“Our brand is suffering,” says Philip Hochstein, president of the Independent Contractors and Businesses Association of B.C. “We are going to have a brand that says you can’t get anything done in British Columbia.”
B.C. has garnered a reputation as a place to protest, pitting profits against the environment.
“It sends the wrong signal to people who want to put capital at risk here. You follow all the rules, all the processes, and at the end of the day, a small group of people get in the way of that,” says Hochstein.
B.C.’s reputation as a difficult place to do business was cemented back in 1993, when thousands took a stand against clear-cut logging of old growth forests in Clayoquot Sound.
Today, our forest industry accounts for less than four percent of B.C.’s gross domestic product.
Most economists agree that global events weigh much more heavily than protests when it comes to investing in B.C.
“In terms of overall impact, it’s relatively minor,” says Bryan Yu, regional economist at Central 1 credit union. “I think it’s the economic cycle and commodity prices on whether projects go forward.”
Manufacturing, construction, trade and finance now make up the biggest pieces of the province’s gross domestic product.
Some economists say to grow our economy, that number needs to grow. Protesters don’t agree.
“At the end of the day, there were 60 people arrested,”says Hochstein. “There are four million people in B.C. and the last election said, ‘we want economic development.'”
One bright spot? There are still 18 companies — some the largest in the world — who want to build new LNG plants in B.C.
– with files from Randene Neill, Global News
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