BC Restart Town Hall explores range of themes for the path forward for the province

Premier  Horgan and Finance Minister James took part in a one
hour streamcast Town hall on Friday

Premier John Horgan and Finance Minister Carole James participated in a live-stream Town Hall this afternoon, with questions submitted previous to the afternoon event, as well as those during the live stream.

Hosted by MLA Bowin Ma, the pair reviewed the provincial response over the last six months, as well as to look ahead to how the province plans to come out of the provincial measures through the phased approach of the BC Restart plan.

The Town Hall had been preceded earlier in the day by a half hour presentation from the Finance Minster,, who delivered some of the employment data that reflects the impact on the BC economy that the COVID emergency has delivered.

The Labour Force Statistics Survey provided a stark reminder of the challenges that the province is facing with the month of April making for an 11.5 % unemployment rate, with 264,100 jobs being lost in the last month; making for a two month total of 396,500 jobs lost in the province.

By comparison the BC unemployment rate in February was the best in the nation at just 5%.

Ms. James also noted how the numbers released today are not even the full picture yet, with many who lost employment are noted as not part of the labour force rather than as unemployed, because they wanted employment, but did not look for it because of the lack of opportunities as a result of COVID.

Among the hardest hit sectors were Food Services and Whole sale and retail trade, making for 47 percent of all the jobs lost in the province in the last two months.



More background on the labour data released today can be explored here.

Premier Horgan set the frame for the afternoon's one hour Town Hall presentation, recounting some of the history of the COVID response, while Minister James noted the eagerness of the commercial and industrial sector to relaunch the provincial economy.

Among the questions, one presented expressed concerns over the province making too quick a relaunch, something that the Finance Minister noted help guide the government towards its phased approach.

Another sought some guidance as to what the long term impact the COVID situation may have on the long term economic situation.

On that the Finance Minister expressed some optimism, making note of the strong foundation and the work ethic of workers in BC that the province has to build for the rebuild, though she did observe as to some of the challenges ahead. 

Themes related to Transportation, particularly in the province's major cities, rental assistance for both renters and landlords and other housing issues also took up  some of the conversation for the hour long program.

A frequent topic of late, that of if people are sick they shouldn't go to work offered the Premier one more opportunity to outline how he hopes to approach the ways to develop a national response to some of the challenges, such as employment and burdens on the companies that employ them.

Child care was also raised, with the Finance Minister relaying how the province plans to approach the deliver and continue to invest in programs in British Columbia.

The relaunch of the Health Care system also made for some of the narrative for the event, with the Premier noting of the plan to get cancelled surgeries rebooked and address some of the backlog that has been accumulated since the cancellations were put in place.

The entire Town Hall event can be reviewed below:





For further background on the BC Government's approach to the COVID response see our archive page here.