As loonie and oil price drops, B.C. growth continues to rise

British Columbia’s west coast is insulated from the economic woes facing many other Canadian provinces. In fact, B.C. is expected to grow twice as fast as the national average over the next two years according to the Conference Board of Canada.

“British Columbia is the only province in Canada that will have growth of more than 3 per cent, which is very strong,” said Marie-Christine Bernard, who worked on the provincial forecasts.

As the loonie drops to an 11-year low and the price of oil continues to plummet, Bernard said B.C.’s resiliency can be found outside the resource sector. The foundation of this growth is formed by the 33,000 new housing starts in the province, this year alone. The hot housing market is also having a ripple effect in other sectors including house-related retail.

“The numbers I get from our customers, they’ve grown about 15 to 20 per cent this year,” said Ranbir Kler of Trail Appliances.

With new homes comes the need for new appliances for both private consumers and developers. The strong flow of sales in the province is also leading to expectations of strong job creation.

“We’re currently hiring and we’ve been hiring for some time,” said Kler. “We’ve definitely been growing with the economy as well.”

There is one concern being raised with the Conference Board of Canada’s provincial forecast. Construction of the $36-billion liquefied natural gas terminal in partnership with Petronas is factored into the growth. Experts say it is far from a done deal.

“I think this news on oil is bad for the prospects of that, it’s Malaysian financed in part and they’re in trouble, and I don’t think this government will approve it,” said SFU Economics professor James Dean on the LNG deal.

Bernard admits there is uncertainty revolving around the deal and if it fell through that would lower growth in B.C. by a full percentage point.

That reduction would still see the province seeing growth of more than 2 per cent a year. Still a sunny economic forecast compared to the rest of the country.