Editor's Note: As the provincial election draws closer to decision day on May 9, veteran Citizen reporter Mark Nielsen is looking at statements made by the candidates and the parties against the actual historical data. Today, he looks at jobs.
Incumbent B.C. Liberal MLA Shirley Bond wasted little time reminding voters of the 1990s when Prince George and the surrounding region suffered high unemployment during the NDP's last reign as the province's government.
In an interview the day before the writ was dropped, the MLA for Prince George-Valemount noted the city's unemployment rate climbed above 17 per cent during the so-called Lost Decade, in sharp contrast to the 7.7 per cent recorded last month.
"It's what drove me to run then and it's what compels me to run again," Bond went on to say. "I think that is completely unacceptable that British Columbia would be put in that position."
In a telephone interview with The Citizen a few days later, NDP leader John Horgan questioned the number.
"And more importantly, I like to live in the here and the now... we're talking about issues that matter to people and they're talking about holding onto their jobs," Horgan continued.
Turns out Bond could be wrong, but not in a way Horgan would like to see.
A review of Citizen stories during the Glen Clark era as NDP premier, from early 1996 to mid-1999, showed the city's unemployment rate peaking at 18.7 per cent in November 1998, although by the next month it appears to have been revised downward to 17.9 per cent.
(The rate for the city stayed above 15 per cent for at least 15 months according to numbers gleaned from back issues before settling down to about 12 per cent by the time Clark stepped down.)
Regardless, it's a rate most people would rather not see again.
But perhaps the more important question is how much blame did the NDP deserve for those woeful days, and how much credit do the B.C. Liberals, in power since 2001, deserve for the decidedly better times now?
In the view of Jock Finlayson of the B.C. Business Council, some context is necessary.
He noted the Asian financial crisis of 1997-98 translated into reduced prices for some of the commodities B.C. exports.
"That was one factor that hit the economy in B.C. - something that obviously was not under the control of the provincial government," Finlayson said.
But that's as far as it goes.
"It's fair to say the NDP's overall policy agenda over the 1990s, particularly as it affected forestry and mining, also played a role in weakening labour market conditions in your region," he said.
Among the government policies he said impinged on the province's natural resource industries were higher corporate tax rates, a corporate capital tax on large firms and more and increasingly complex government regulations.
He also pointed to a dramatic expansion of parks and protected areas, removing significant amounts of Crown land from potential economic development activity, although this region remained largely unscathed.
"A number of these policy initiatives may have been well-intentioned, but the cumulative effect on business was enough to discourage investment and cause some natural resource firms in B.C. to scale back operations," Finlayson said.
That said, Finlayson gave credit to the steps taken under then energy minister Dan Miller to increase oil and gas activity in northeast B.C.
"That, in turn, set the stage for the subsequent expansion of the industry in the early 2000s," Finlayson said.
As for the B.C. Liberal regime, Finlayson said that while B.C. remains subject to elements beyond its control - commodity prices, the state of global demand, and the value of the Canadian dollar - the current government "deserves some credit for its overall stewardship of the economy."
He listed balanced budgets, relatively low taxes on households, and an "inclination to allow market forces to operate instead of intervening extensively in economic activity," among their accomplishments.
"This approach to economic and fiscal policy has had a positive impact on business and investor confidence," Finlayson said.
Iglika Ivanova, an economist at the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, made note of a 2012 Business Council of B.C. report that gave a more favourable review of B.C.'s performance from 2001 to 2010 when compared to the 1990s.
But Ivanova went on to point out a worrying trend when it comes to job growth outside the Lower Mainland since the recession. From 2011 to 2016, the number of jobs in the Cariboo economic region has declined 2.8 per cent, compared to a 0.5 per cent decline from 1995-2000.
She also noted there are now 78,800 people employed in the Cariboo, 200 less than there were in 2000.
"So basically, the same number of jobs in the region is what we have today," Ivanova said.
"That's not a good news story."
Ivanova co-authored a report that calls into question the effectiveness of the B.C. Liberals' 2011 Jobs Plan for the province as a whole.
It says B.C.'s economic activity and employment has become increasingly concentrated in the Lower Mainland-Southwest region since the recession.
"This is exactly the opposite of the much-needed revitalization of B.C.'s north and interior that the Premier's Jobs Plan was supposed to accomplish," Ivanova and co-author Seth Klein said in the report.
The outcome puts a tarnish on another claim Bond made during that eve-of-campaign interview.
"We have the No. 1 job creation record in Canada today, and that's what I want to see continue," she said.
