B.C. employment declined amid circuit breaker restrictions in April

“I think folks understand that when the circuit breaker was announced that we were going to see job losses,” said B.C.’s Minister of Jobs Ravi Kahlon. “But it was a priority for us as a province to bend that curve down to get the case counts down. And it’s working. But of course, we know that those in tourism, hospitality, those in the accommodations sector are feeling the pinch and that’s where we’ve seen the job losses.”

B.C. lost 43,000 jobs in April, a decline of 1.6 per cent.

The province has provided support to affected sectors in the form of financial relief. The Circuit Breaker Business Relief Grant launched about three weeks ago and Kahlon says around $34 million has been dispursed to businesses in need.

Liberal Critic for Jobs, Economic Recovery and Innovation Todd Stone says the process to receive grant money isn’t as simple as the province is touting.

“I hear from small businesses every single day of the week here in Kamloops and from around the province in my role as Jobs Critic, from restaurants and tourism businesses, live events companies, all kinds of B.C.-based businesses that are small to mid-size in nature that are just scratching their heads wondering why it’s so difficult for them to be able to access funding that the government says is on the table for them,” Stone said.

The BC Liberals are calling on the government to put forward a private sector jobs plan as well as an economic restart plan.

“Much like other jurisdictions have been doing across North America, Saskatchewan being one of the more recent where they’ve put an actual restart plan that is tied to vaccination levels across their province that provides some detail and some certainty for people and businesses as to certain health restrictions being lifted based on vaccination levels,” Stone said.

One support that has been lacking for the currently employed is a paid sick leave program.

“We had indications from the federal government that they were actually going to provide some changes to their program before the budget,” Kahlon said. “We were disappointed not to see that in the budget, but the premier made it clear we’re going to go at it alone, just like Ontario just did. So, I suspect within a week you’ll hear more about a paid sick leave program here in British Columbia.”

While April brought about employment losses, Kahlon says companies are investing in B.C.

“We just had Microsoft announce thousands of new jobs, Best Buy moved their headquarters to B.C., Amazon, just this morning, announced thousands of jobs opening up in B.C., so we continue to see investments coming and we will lead the country in economic growth once we’re through this.”

by Jill Sperling

B.C. employment declined amid circuit breaker restrictions in April

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