British Columbia government to seek input from public on BC Business recovery

Finance Minister Carole James
provided an update on the BC
economy and step moving forward
to rebuild it

Both Premier John Horgan and Finance Minister Carole James know the task ahead towards rebuilding the British Columbia will be a challenging one, but both shared confidence yesterday that the businesses and workers of the province are ready to take the steps to build on the strengths found in the province to restore economic growth.

During a Wednesday afternoon media conference the two senior BC government leaders charted the course forward towards a rebuilding of the economic structure for the province.

The Premier noted the risk of the Pandemic is still with us, we are now at a time to look at how the future may look like. Towards that Mr. Horgan observed some of the elements toward the British Columbia of the future, will return to a focus on Climate Change and how to create good family supporting jobs .

The Finance Minister issued the call to all British Columbians to put the same effort that they have had towards the pandemic response into the province's economic recovery.

"We know it's been a struggle for people over the last number of months, thousands of business have closed to be able to do their part and thousands of people have been out of work. It's too early to be able to calculate the full economic consequences of COVID-19, but we do know that the effect of this pandemic is as bad as we have ever seen in the history of our province."

To provide a stark reminder of the cost of the province wide shuttering of business and industry during the pandemic, the Finance Minister observed that the Service Sector has suffered the most with 90 percent of the provincial job losses found in accommodation, food services and retail trade.

Ms. James also  made note of the youth unemployment rate currently at 29%, with women making up more than 60% in the Sectors most affected by the pandemic.

To rebuild the economy, Ms. James highlighted the many strengths to be found in the province, with the most important advantage towards a recovery being the people of British Columbia.

When it comes to consulting British Columbians, the engagement period will be of a six week duration, included in the program will be Virtual Town Halls planned for June 25th at Noon.

You can submit questions for that engagement  process here.

The Government has also put in place an online survey for the public to participate in to help guide the provincial planning.

The survey will continue to collect the opinions of British Columbians until July 21st.

More on the consultation plans can be reviewed here, with the full presentation from the Wednesday information session from Victoria available below.




For more notes on the Northwest Commercial sector see our archive page here.

Items of interest from the Legislature can be found here.