By Shuswap Liberal MLA Greg Kyllo

Private sector job loss sets off alarm bells

Jul 30, 2018 | 1:08 PM

A year into the NDP’s mandate, there’s a lot to be concerned about as far as B.C. jobs are concerned. As the BC Liberals’ Jobs Critic, I watch the release of Statistics Canada’s monthly employment numbers with great interest— and there’s one development I find particularly alarming.

That’s the loss of private sector jobs. Recent figures by Statistics Canada showed B.C. has lost 43,500 private sector jobs over the past year. This doesn’t bode well for our economy, because these types of jobs are paid for by private employers and provide tax revenues to government.

It’s not too hard to figure out why we’re seeing those job losses. The NDP has been putting the scare into the business community since day one. Instead of supporting these important job creators, the NDP government has instead chosen to overload B.C. businesses with a pile of new or increased taxes. They’ve raised corporate, gas, and carbon taxes and introduced an Employer’s Health Tax which is really just an MSP replacement tax.

The BC Liberals have raised numerous examples of businesses who say they will put off hiring new staff, or even lay off employees, to cover this unanticipated expense. Some also say they might have to raise prices for consumers. Either way, it’s bad news for British Columbians.

While private sector jobs plummet, there’s another interesting development. Over the past year, B.C. has gained 19,400 public sector jobs. That sounds like a good thing! But public sector job growth becomes problematic when it represents all of the job growth. That’s because taxpayers have to fund the majority of those costs. If this trend of significant private sector job loss and massive creation of public sector jobs continues, it will be very difficult for the NDP government to avoid deficits.

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With all this in mind, the government should be working harder to support B.C.’s business community and help local employers create more jobs. But what we’ve seen so far is that the NDP doesn’t have a solid jobs plan or economic strategy to bolster the private sector.

The Opposition isn’t the only group raising the alarm bells about this. Recently, the government’s Small Business Task Force released the findings of its online questionnaire and in-person meetings. Seventy-three per cent of respondents viewed ‘managing the cost of doing business’ as a major challenge.

Participants often said the best thing the government can do to minimize these costs is to ‘get out of their way.’ And taxation was identified as the number one challenge impacting the cost of doing business by respondents. But clearly, the NDP is doing the opposite of what is needed to help B.C. entrepreneurs succeed.

Meanwhile, there have been some other developments that have raised eyebrows as well. Premier John Horgan recently announced so-called “Community Benefits Agreements” that claw back freedoms for our construction industry and force workers into union memberships if they want to work on public infrastructure projects.

Past history has shown that these types of project labour agreements aren’t always good for the taxpayer. For example, the PLA model increased the cost of the inland island highway by 38 per cent and resulted in delays and a scaled-back project.

So why would we go back to a system like that? Because the NDP needs to rewards its biggest political supporters. The move is essentially a political payoff at taxpayers’ expense.

And then there’s the issue of professional reliance. This practice sees the private sector take responsibility for meeting government regulations through the use of professional consultants who are experts in areas like forestry, biology, engineering, and geoscience.

The fact is, we have excellent models of self-regulation for these professions. We rely on these professionals to perform their assignments competently, with public safety and benefit paramount. Those standards are set by professional associations who can discipline members for failing to meet them.

Nonetheless, the government commissioned a report to examine the practice of professional reliance. The findings of this report raise concern that the NDP will continue to add new layers of bureaucracy and more delays to resource permitting.

We feel the province should work with professional organizations to improve the system, not strangle the system with red tape— and we support the business community in calling for the report to be shelved.

When we look at all of these actions in their totality, it becomes clear that the government is working against job creators rather than with them, and putting more obstacles in the way of their success. That ultimately hurts all taxpayers in the end, as our economy starts to falter.

During the spring session of the Legislature I quipped that “when it comes to understanding competitiveness and making B.C. businesses actually successful and having the opportunity to compete in international markets… trying to explain that to the members opposite is like trying to explain thunder to goats.”

It’s a funny metaphor for the House, but not for the future of our economy and province.