B.C.'s competitiveness and high labour costs in comparison to other provinces were a recurring theme recently at the Greater Vancouver Board of Trade.
“Archeological digs on our projects in British Columbia average about $55,000 per dig,” said Enbridge Inc. vice-president Steve Elliott at the April 4 GVBOT event featuring various panels of B.C. ministers, as well as resources and infrastructure executives.
“In Ontario, that same dig for our organization is $5,000.”
He said his company is planning to invest around $8 billion over the next four years across four different projects. Those include Woodfibre LNG, as well as the Aspen Point, Sunrise and Birch Grove programs.
The issue of competitiveness was also on the mind Petronas Energy Canada Ltd. vice-president Shannon Young.
She said the tariffs have awakened the challenge of lack of market diversification, but issues with lack of investment in the province were present even before the tariffs.
“When we compare British Columbia to the rest of our international portfolio, it's been very challenging to push and advocate for British Columbia as being competitive globally,” Young said at the GVBOT event. “The cost of labour in British Columbia is significantly higher than neighbouring jurisdictions.”
She said what’s missing is not project-by-project investment, but a B.C. strategy looking at fiscal and climate policy, as well as Indigenous reconciliation for natural gas and LNG.
Petronas is a 25 per cent owner in LNG Canada, a natural gas export facility in Kitimat, B.C.
Michael Bonshor, managing director of the First Nations Business Development Association, said there is minimal amount of participation by the Indigenous community in goods and services traded out of B.C.
“That’s our reality and we want to change that,” he said during a panel.
Heather Exner-Pirot, director of energy and natural resources at the Macdonald-Laurier Institute, said must step up and prevent the global oil market from being controlled by authoritarian regimes.
“Canada is the only democracy with large oil reserves,” she said during a panel Canada.
The U.S. and Norway also have significant oil reserves.
“We are currently the world's fourth-largest producer of oil, and the No. 3 exporter,” she said. “We haven't been able to capitalize on that because almost all of it has gone to the United States.”
Exner-Pirot said B.C. projects, such as like LNG Canada’s proposed Phase 2, the Trans Mountain expansion and the Ridley Island Energy Export Facility, could help Canada become an energy and resource superpower.
Trade war could escalate further
Additional U.S. tariffs on B.C. lumber and pharmaceutical products could hit the province in the coming weeks, Housing Minister Ravi Kahlon said at the start of a panel featuring government ministers.
“We are in a fascinating place that none of us had on our bingo cards five months ago,” said the minister. “Our focus has been on three pillars – response, strengthen and diversify. … The [U.S.] president is serious about the 51st state.”
Kahlon highlighted the province’s targeted responses of banning U.S. liquor and proposals to charge American semis travelling through the province to Alaska.
Jobs Minister Diana Gibson reiterated the idea of building a diverse and resilient B.C. economy, adding the province has been pursuing this prior to the threat of tariffs.
“That's paying off,” she said.
Gibson also said the province has experienced a significant GDP and job growth over the last five years despite headwinds.
Bridgitte Anderson, CEO of the GVBOT, questioned Gibson’s statement, noting most of the job growth has been in the public sector.
Gibson was later asked what is being done to break barriers in interprovincial trade. Despite some recent pushback from other provinces, she said B.C. is working toward full mutual recognition of exported goods.
“There was a feeling of protectionism around a lot of jurisdictions and sectors across the country, and we're really seeing that change,” she said.
Energy Minister Adrian Dix said it was important to invest in energy throughout the province due to increasing demands for power.
“We've seen six per cent increases in electricity rates in B.C. between 2020 and 2024, compared to 40 per cent in Alberta,” he said.
His assertion is backed by a recent The Globe and Mail analysis.
“If you want a growing economy, you need more energy, and that will mean an incremental cost of power… we need to be less cautious about that investment,” Dix said.
The provincial government announced in February it would fast-track 18 critical mineral and energy projects amid tariff threats from the U.S., which include nine wind-power projects.
The minister said the timeline of the wind projects was unreasonable, as these are expected to come online in 2033 and 2034.
“A wind project shouldn't take nine years to build,” said Dix. “We didn't just announce them [projects]. We exempted them from the environmental assessment process because we have to get them done.”
Dix also said the recently removed consumer carbon tax was an important economic action to reduce costs for businesses at a critical time.
Mining Minister Jagrup Brar said the sector he overlooks will like avoid the brunt of U.S. tariffs, noting fewer of those mineral products are exported to the U.S. Aluminium and steel, though, will be heavily impacted, he added.
