Confronted with a string of record budget deficits, a soaring provincial debt, and a business community that lacks confidence in much of its policy agenda, the re-elected NDP government has the urgent task of recalibrating its approach to the B.C. economy. Instead of viewing government as the main driver and shaper of economic activity, policymakers would benefit by reacquainting themselves with a few basic facts about what makes the province tick.

First, despite more than seven years of NDP rule, British Columbia remains a market-based economy. Our diverse private sector accounts for almost four-fifths of employment, generates more than 75 per cent of economy-wide wages and salaries, and provides more than 90 per cent of B.C.’s exports as well as a large majority of all new residential investment. Entrepreneurs and small and medium-sized businesses are a vital part of the province’s economy. Many of them are groaning under the heavy weight of high taxes, punitive regulation and frequent government interventions into the province’s economic affairs. Government can play a supportive and facilitating role in managing the economy and in encouraging business growth; but without a thriving private sector a large cadre of ambitious entrepreneurs, the economy will languish. That message needs to be understood by every member of Premier Eby’s new cabinet…

Weak research and development investment – largely caused by high taxation and government policies seemingly designed to discourage investment and innovation – is causing sluggish productivity growth, says the June 2024 edition of The Construction Monitor, published by the Independent Contractors and Businesses Association.

Up until 2000, Canada achieved productivity growth rates above or roughly comparable to those in the U.S., but the country has been consistently falling behind since then.

“We are witnessing Canada’s long, slow decline. On productivity growth and many other measures of well-being and competitiveness, Canada is coming up short among its global peers,” wrote ICBA President Chris Gardner in his introduction to The Construction Monitor. “Why does productivity matter? Because the more Canadian firms innovate, the more they spend on upskilling their people and on adopting new technology, the more profitable they are and the more they can increase the size of paycheques for workers.”

Jock Finlayson is Chief Economist for the Independent Contractors and Businesses Association (ICBA), Canada’s largest construction association. He is the first Chief Economist in ICBA’s 50-year history. Analyzing industry trends, market conditions, and economic factors to provide insights and forecasts relevant to the construction sector, he advises ICBA and its members on developments in the business and policy environment affecting the construction sector and the broader economy and assists in strategic planning and public policy advocacy.

Previously, Mr. Finlayson served as Executive Vice President and Chief Policy Officer at the Business Council of British Columbia. In that capacity, he directed the Business Council’s work on economic, fiscal, tax, environmental, regulatory, and human capital issues of interest to the largest employers in the province and the wider business community.

Prior to returning to B.C. in 1994, Mr. Finlayson was Vice President of Research at the Business Council of Canada, a leading business association in Ottawa.

Mr. Finlayson holds a master’s degree in business from Yale University, undergraduate and M.A. degrees from UBC, and an honorary Doctor of Laws from Royal Roads University.

He is the author/coauthor of two books and more than 50 published articles, book chapters and monographs. A frequent commentator on economic, business, and public policy issues, Mr. Finlayson writes regularly for Business in Vancouver, the Globe and Mail, The Orca, Black Press, Troy Media, and Postmedia.

From 2007 to 2013, Mr. Finlayson was a member of the Board of Directors of the Bank of Canada, where he chaired the Corporate Governance Committee and the Fellowship Committee and served on both the Pension Committee and the Human Resources Committee. He is a past member of the National Statistics Council, the principal advisory body to the Chief Statistician of Canada, and previously sat on the Boards of the Institute for Research on Public Policy, the Canada West Foundation, and Genome BC. From 2019 to 2021, he was a member of the Expert Panel on Housing Supply and Affordability jointly appointed by the B.C. and federal governments.

Mr. Finlayson is a Senior Fellow at the Fraser Institute, a Fellow of Royal Roads University, and past president of both the Association of Professional Economists of B.C. and the Ottawa Economics Association. He resides in West Vancouver with his wife Marlene.