Not that long ago, British Columbia was an economic leader in Canada. No more. Too much debt and bloat, not enough investment and revenue. In less than a decade, B.C. has gone from leader to laggard.
Episode 16 of ICBA Coffee & Construction — the news that matters to the people who build British Columbia and Alberta, with ICBA's Jordan Bateman. A special edition: a full sit-down with ICBA Chief Economist Jock Finlayson on From Leader to Laggard, the report he co-authored with consulting economist Ken Peacock.
In this episode:
☕ "THIS IS NOT A CYCLICAL DOWNTURN." Jock's own line — the province is in the grip of a structural slowdown. What's the difference, and why is the second one so much harder to climb out of? From 2022 to 2024 the government side of B.C.'s economy grew 6.6% a year. The private sector grew 1%.
👷 THE 223,000 JOBS THAT DON'T EXIST. If B.C.'s private sector had kept growing the way it did before the pandemic, we'd have roughly 223,000 more private-sector jobs today. Since 2019, the province has added about 1.3 government jobs for every one private-sector job — more than double the national pace.
💸 SOMEBODY PAYS. The public-sector wage bill has gone from $26.7 billion to $53.2 billion in seven years. Taxpayer-supported debt is on track to TRIPLE in six. Jock and Ken went looking for another province that ran up debt like this — any province, any time — and couldn't find one in half a century.
🇺🇸 DON'T BLAME TRUMP. Everybody in Victoria wants this to be somebody else's fault. The report is blunt: blaming the tariffs is tempting, but B.C. was already on a weaker footing well before the trade fights started in 2025.
📊 Read From Leader to Laggard — free — and subscribe to the ICBA EconoBot briefing: https://icba.ca/economics
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