Why People Are Leaving British Columbia: Economic underperformance and policy costs

A report titled Building B.C. Right, authored by economists Jock Finlayson and Ken Peacock, concludes that British Columbia's economy has lost ground on several core measures in recent years. The report lists GDP, per-capita income, private-sector investment, export performance, private-sector employment creation and provincial finances as areas that have worsened.

Finlayson and Peacock point to policies set at the provincial level as central drivers of B.C.'s underperformance. Their assessment links recent policy choices to:

• a weakened fiscal position for the provincial government.

These factors, the report says, have combined to make the province less attractive for private investment and job creation.

Population change and the human signal

Ryan Berlin, vice-president of intelligence and chief economist at Rennie, framed the population data as a clear behavioral response: "people are voting with their feet." He noted that B.C.'s population fell by more than 40,000 people and that the province is experiencing a population decline for the first time in 151 years. The implication presented by Berlin and the report is that migration patterns are responding to the economic and policy environment.

The Building B.C. Right report addresses a possible alternate explanation—international trade tensions with the United States—by saying the province's economic shortfalls began before current tariff issues. That means the authors view the problems as at least partly domestic and rooted in longer-term provincial trends rather than solely the result of recent external shocks.

Finlayson and Berlin discussed these findings and trends on Conversations That Matter, a Vancouver Sun series that brings economists and public figures together to discuss regional economic and policy questions. The conversation centers on why B.C.'s economy weakened and why the population decline occurred.

The report and the conversation suggest several practical follow-ups readers may want to watch for:

According to the Building B.C. Right report and economists who discussed it, B.C. has seen declines across multiple economic indicators caused in part by provincial policy choices. Those economic conditions coincide with a net population drop of more than 40,000 people and the first provincial population decline in 151 years, a signal interpreted by some economists as people relocating in response to the province's economic environment.