Liberal MP bullish about P.G.'s economic role

The federal Liberal Party critic for business thinks Ottawa is missing Prince George's role in the national economy.

Joyce Murray was in Prince George last week for meetings with her political party's volunteers and to meet with business owners in the area. It was her second trip to Prince George in the past year, a year in which she campaigned her way to second place in the bid for the Liberal leader's position, behind Justin Trudeau.

Now Murray has the business portfolio but is also critic for tourism, the Asia-Pacific gateway, and western economic diversification. All of those topics flow through Prince George, she said, quite literally.

"I see a vibrant set of activities, when you look at all the mines under development, the transmission line in the northwest, more First Nations achieving agreements over economic self-reliance, and this is the centre of it all," she said. "A lot has happened to diversify the economy of Prince George and a lot was done to open up markets in China especially for B.C.'s wood products."

She said the credit for these achievements belongs with the private sector for making smart business decisions. She added that Prince George was an example of how a jurisdiction can steer through hard economic times in spite of the choices made in Ottawa, citing moves like cutting back on national park activities and reducing the budget of the Canadian Tourism Commission.

"These are not easy things to see on the surface, but each one adds up and its unhelpful for small and medium-sized business," she said. "Big corporations trying to build a mine need those small businesses to be healthy, they need communities around them to be healthy, so their project has a better chance of succeeding. Communities need small businesses to be healthy because they provide most of the long-term employment, and build the foundation of the community."

With such a shortage in skilled labour, Murray hopes the projects go ahead in the northern B.C. region that make sense for the towns and First Nations of the area. As the former provincial Minister of Water, Land, and Air Protection she applauded the provincial government's stringent criteria in order for Enbridge to get the necessary work permits because she feared the federal government had already made up its mind to ram the project through even if science and social will is against it.

A figurative pipeline to China was not a bad idea, however, in her view, especially since that country is in the process of morphing into an environmentally rigid nation.

"Right now China is saying, we want to develop for the future, but if develop like the west, we won't have a future," Murray said. "They have to leapfrog over the fossil fuel economy that has dominated the western economy. It does not serve Canada's interests if we don't position ourselves to link into their thinking that green growth is the key to sustainability."