Image Credit: Flickr / Government of BC

By Kamloops-South Thompson MLA Todd Stone

Sound Off

SOUND OFF: Time for NDP to step up with economic restart and jobs plan

May 6, 2021 | 4:30 PM

LAST WEEK, the NDP government brought forward legislation to create a $500 million investment fund called InBC, the stated purpose of which is to invest in B.C. tech start-ups to try to anchor local talent and intellectual property in our province. While these are worthy goals, the NDP of course has strange ways of trying to accomplish them.

In the Legislature I asked questions about the government’s plans for ensuring the independence of investment decisions, criteria for making these investments and efforts to protect taxpayer dollars via good investment returns. It’s doubtful this later point will be achieved by using half a billion dollars of taxpayers’ money to support high-risk venture capital investments, with even InBC’s Service Plan stating, “venture capital is a high-risk asset class that does not afford guaranteed returns,” and “InBC does not include revenue from venture capital investments when forecasting, due to the variable and unpredictable nature of the investments.” Frankly governments shouldn’t be in the business of picking winners and losers in the first place, and this NDP scheme will ultimately leave taxpayers flapping in the wind.

To further illustrate, I was shocked to learn that investments that meet NDP government policy criteria won’t necessarily have to be profitable. The NDP is forecasting InBC to lose $16 million in taxpayer funds over its first three years of operation. This is absurd. Using taxpayer money to make investments without guaranteed profit is nothing less than irresponsible, especially when you consider that the NDP is already forecasting a $9.7 billion deficit for 2021 and a further $5.5 billion deficit for 2022, with the provincial debt now at $103 billion.

What’s more, the NDP’s InBC scheme is being facilitated via the creation of another Crown corporation, one that will cost British Columbians more than $17 million to run, including almost $9 million in salaries and benefits over the next three years alone. InBC will not even begin to invest funds until as late as the end of the fiscal year in March 2022 — nearly a year from now.

And InBC’s launch is taking place against the backdrop of thousands of businesses across our province needing help to survive today. The fact is, as many as one in seven B.C. small businesses is at risk of closing for good. That’s 25,000 small businesses, and about 300,000 employees, whose jobs are in jeopardy. And that’s on top of the 8,000 small businesses B.C. has already lost.

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We also need to be looking at the rest of the economic recovery puzzle, which continues to be absent under this government. John Horgan and the NDP continue to lack a real vision for this province and its recovery from the pandemic. Rather than put an economic restart plan on the table – as has been the case in a growing number of jurisdictions like Saskatchewan – the NDP continue to let businesses suffer while competing jurisdictions work harder to make themselves more attractive to investors.

Here in British Columbia, the NDP has introduced 23 new and increased taxes since forming government. B.C. has the third-highest top marginal tax rate in the country which impacts the recruitment of tech jobs like software development engineers. Nearby Washington State has no state income tax, which makes it tough for us to compete for high-paying, high-talent jobs.

B.C. has a higher corporate tax than Alberta and Ontario, and the NDP’s Employer Health Tax (EHT) is putting a heavier burden onto the shoulders of our small businesses. By contrast, Ontario and Quebec have both worked to reduce that EHT burden on small business, and the EHT doesn’t even exist in Alberta.

It’s clear that other jurisdictions are recognizing what John Horgan and the NDP simply can’t grasp — that it will be the private sector that will lift us out of this economic slump, and that it needs the tools to not only survive the pandemic, but actually compete and thrive.

What B.C.’s NDP has done instead is botch its recovery programs for businesses; fail to create the conditions for businesses to want to be here; and focus its job creation on the public sector, which is not sustainable. Along with an economic restart plan, B.C. needs a private sector jobs plan to get businesses on firmer footing, and the proper tools to help them succeed long-term in what will be an even more competitive post-pandemic world economy.

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Editor’s Note: This opinion piece reflects the views of its author, and does not necessarily represent the views of CFJC Today or the Jim Pattison Broadcast Group.