Jobs Plan Still Working Says Bond
Prince George, B.C. – Jobs Minister Shirley Bond remains optimistic about B.C.’s economy despite LNG Canada’s decision to put off making a final investment decision on its proposed Kitimat operation.
“Well obviously we’re disappointed but I think as a government we recognize that world markets being the way they are that this is a decision that proponents needed to consider,” she says.
“But on the other hand as a government we’ve worked very hard to deliver on all of the expectations. Proponents would tell you our government has done everything it can to make sure that the stage is set properly for a liquefied natural gas industry and we continue to be hopeful that it’s not a matter of if, it’s a matter of when.”
What kind of implications will the decision have on B.C.’s highly touted jobs plan?
“Interestingly enough, when we look at our statistics and the plan we built, we actually have significant gaps whether LNG is short term or longer term,” says Bond.
“We see that we have, if you exclude numbers for liquefied natural gas, we have almost a million job openings over the next decade and in many of those jobs, two thirds of them, are actually coming as a result of people retiring and leaving the workforce.”
Added to that she says B.C.’s economy, relative to the rest of Canada, continues to hum along.
“We still have significant job demands in the province and we have the lowest unemployment rates across the country as well.”
And though LNG development seems to be at a standstill, Bond says money invested in B.C.’s ‘Jobs Blueprint’ continues to be money well spent.
“The money that is invested every year in skills training continues to be essential to making sure we have the workforce we need today and in the future,” she says.
“You look at the many job openings in the province today and a large number of those are in skilled trades. The plan is built so that the skills are transferable across sections. We’re going to need a skilled workforce, the plan is working and British Columbia is leading the country.”
Comments
2/3 of the jobs will come because people are retiring? That’s the plan? Wow.
How can that be Shirley saying that we are doing better than any other province when they are also claiming the same thing? BC”s economy might be humming along but our MLAs very out of tune with reality.
If a person retires and another person takes their job, that is not an increase in jobs, as the job already existed. So no increase in jobs in BC because of people retiring, or getting out of the job market.
So no increase in jobs because of LNG. There was an increase in jobs in the North East for drilling etc;, however with the price of oil in the tank these jobs have largely disappeared, or will disappear.
My guess is that most of the increase in jobs comes either from Government jobs, or jobs in the retail or service industry, and with the exception of the Government jobs, these would be low paid, part time jobs.
So, unless we can get more specific where these job increases are taking place, I would have to say that Bond is putting out some political spin.
Your guess is wrong, there was a loss of 900 part time jobs and a gain of 16,900 full time jobs in June
Stats Canada can show you where our 75,000 new jobs came from in BC from June 2015 to June 2016. They have lots of charts and figures for you to whet your whistle
60% of the jobs in BC are in the lower mainland, and 2/3 of those will be opening up due to boomer retirement. This was from a KPMG report back in January.
Recently I read a VanCity report that families are seriously thinking of packing up and leaving the GVRD within the next three years because it’s too expensive to live there.
So this is our possible situation. Jobs will come available, but possibly not enough trained people will be living where the majority of jobs are, because housing prices went into the stupid zone.
exactly and with 25% of our is GDP from real estate and building housing in the lower-mainland we are in big trouble when the bubble bursts
Spin it Shirley, spin it hard… there may be enough stupid people out there who will buy this for another Christy Clark Liberal election win.
Whats your solution Peeps? Elect an NDP government and let them create 50,000 new government jobs while stepping on the neck of industry, like Alberta did? You do realize where money for government employees comes from, right? Or can we just keep creating public sector employment like some kind of perpetual motion machine?
Better to have our money spent on services to us, than on tax and royalty breaks for big business / corporations that are suppose to create jobs with it, instead they continue to make profits without reinvesting it. Nope we just watch as those profits get exported into overseas tax shelters, while temporary foreign workers get imported into Canada in record numbers.
Hey… does everyone now understand that giving all those tax and royalty breaks (heck we are even paying to pay for their workers training (in the RBC case training temporary foreign workers to take over laid off Canadian IT worker jobs), results in NO reinvestment, NO expansion of industry factories, plants, mines, etc. and definitely NO job creation. Trick down economics does not work, and we have known that for more than a decade now!
BC was the only province to show employment growth in June according to Stats Canada
“British Columbia was the lone province with employment gains in June (+16,000 or +0.7%), continuing an upward trend going back to the spring of 2015. The unemployment rate in the province was 5.9%, the lowest rate in the country. On a year-over-year basis, employment in British Columbia was up 70,000 or 3.0%, the fastest rate of growth among the provinces.”
An increase in part-time poverty wage retail service jobs, and the creation of more temporary foreign worker jobs that pay even less, is good for big business and corporate profits, but does not benefit us or our economy!
“trickle” down economics… *I need another cup of coffee*
You have “trickle down” economics because ALL political Parties have not yet figured out how to have “percolate up” economics.
To do that you have to introduce new credit into the economy in a way that’s it’s not ‘costed’ into prices.
‘Trickle down’ attempts to do this through a process called “churning”, where the big banks and the Bank of Canada trade government bonds amongst themselves, and the banks create money ‘debt free’ to pay each other commissions on these trades.
This money is paid out in wages and salaries, interest paid on saving accounts, and dividends to bank shareholders, etc. It enters the economy ‘debt free’ ~ it does not have to be paid back.
What is needed is to introduce this necessary new credit at the bottom, directly to consumers, and let it ‘percolate up’, where it can then begin to liquidate existing costs more fully than is now the case. This would not be particularly difficult to do.
It could be done using new credit to fund ‘rebates’ on all existing retail prices calculated as a percentage of the amount that the value of total national production exceeds that of total national consumption over any chosen same given time periods.
I just read that Ontario lead the country and g7 in job creation for the first quarter 2016 in the winnipeg free press . I wonder what tipped sherlys scale in the libcreds favour . Fantasy perhaps ?
If two thirds of job is coming from retiring work force. One third of the workforce, is employed because of what reason.
Maybe, I am in news black out. But has the NDP done anything for the upcoming election next spring. Have they made any statements or comeout with a platform? …. or are they going to wait for the last minute.
The other 1/3 of the jobs will come from jobs created to look after the 2/3 that are retiring.
Yes, her plan to keep her job is working……at least in her mind.
Comments for this article are closed.