Vaughn Palmer: Provincial economic plan calls for dispersing growth away from Vancouver
Credit to Author: Hugh Dawson| Date: Wed, 15 Jan 2020 01:34:12 +0000
VICTORIA — The John Horgan government has adopted an economic plan to shift growth and investment away from Vancouver and toward less-congested parts of the province.
The dispersed growth strategy is outlined in an “economic framework for improving B.C.’s standard of living.” It was distributed recently to senior public servants and selected stakeholders by Don Wright, deputy minister to Premier Horgan.
“Looking forward, B.C will need a thoughtful, deliberate strategy to plan for business and population growth, and to guide investment, infrastructure, housing development and good jobs into affordable, livable communities — both urban and rural,” says a key passage in the 92-page document.
“We need to make decisions about where B.C. can accommodate significant population, trade and business growth without compromising affordability or further congesting our trade corridors.”
Key elements will promote the development of Surrey as a “second downtown” for Metro Vancouver, anchoring a “growth corridor” extending into the Fraser Valley.
Part and parcel of that push will see development of an updated transportation and regional land use plan in cooperation with local governments.
While the plan mentions few specifics, it does quote favourably from a recent B.C. Business Council paper which called for “a new Fraser Valley innovation corridor anchored by a commuter rail system running from Chilliwack to the city of Vancouver.”
The plan also touts the attractions of other communities in and around Lower Mainland and beyond:
“Squamish, the Tri-Cities, Delta, Tsawwassen, Langford” — yes, John Horgan’s home town — “and others offer significant advantages for technology start-ups or satellite office locations, offering lower operating and housing costs, while providing employees the convenience of avoiding gridlock and the benefit of saving time and money while reducing their carbon footprint.”
Further afield, investors will be encouraged to see other B.C. communities as virtually “next door,” digitally speaking.
“Kamloops, Rossland, Nelson, Canal Flats, Campbell River and many others are seeing transformational growth in the technology sector from businesses and workers purposefully seeking out the cost and lifestyle advantages of a smaller community, while staying connected to their B.C. and global customers through high-speed internet.”
Also underway is a “dedicated strategy focused on the needs, economic development opportunities and priorities of B.C.’s North.”
To help persuade investors to locate operations in the north, the province cites access to “B.C.’s clean affordable hydroelectric grid that can power industrial development.”
The latter pitch depends in part on successful completion of the hydroelectric dam at Site C on the Peace River. The New Democrats discounted the project as unnecessary during their Opposition days, but it now dovetails conveniently with their new economic strategy.
While the plan is framed as the first instalment of a document that will be updated annually, some of the work is already underway.
The New Democrats began the process of identifying “high-potential opportunities for quality economic growth across B.C.’s regions” during the current (2019-20) fiscal year.
Also in the works is “a regional inventory of investment-ready opportunities, including transportation, energy, educational, internet connectivity, community and other infrastructure needed to support quality economic growth.”
But the inventory is no more public than the plan itself, which, as noted here Tuesday, was crafted mainly for the eyes of the public service and selected stakeholders.
One group that is supposed to be clued in is the province’s trade and investment staff so “they have first-hand familiarity with B.C.’s diverse economic regions, major economic sectors and the wide range of communities that they will be working to attract investment to or promote exports from.”
The objective might be somewhat undercut by the news that the province is phasing out many of its stand-alone trade and investment offices. They will be replaced with subsidiary enclaves inside Canada’s overseas consulates.
As to the rationale for all this, the plan notes that the province is scheduled to add a million people over the next 30 years.
“B.C. will need a bold new approach to plan for and invest in the transportation systems and community infrastructure of the future. This will include planning across regional boundaries and making deliberate decisions about how and where B.C. can grow without increasing congestion on our trade corridors, impacting affordability or creating additional GHG emissions through longer commutes.”
Failing that, the plan offers a cautionary tale, drawn from the past two decades of provincial history.
“B.C.’s population grew by close to a million people, with much of the population increase concentrated in the Lower Mainland.”
The region was unprepared for growth of that scale.
“Demand for housing, public services and infrastructure exceeded supply, with particularly acute impacts for housing affordability. Higher demand led to sharp increases in the cost of rental and market housing, and those with lower incomes were squeezed out — or sometimes forced out through ‘renoviction’ — of housing they could no longer afford. Families moved farther away from their work in order to find housing within their means, resulting in longer commute times and growing congestion problems.”
All true enough, but not without its ironies in political terms.
The fallout from runaway and unplanned growth is one reason why the New Democrats picked up 10 seats in Metro Vancouver in the last election and the B.C. Liberals lost their legislative majority.
By moving now to better manage growth in Metro Vancouver, the New Democrats will be steering some investment away from their newest power base and toward some places that stuck with the B.C. Liberals.