On first impression, Premier Christy Clark's jobs plan is quite original in that no goal for actual job creation has been set. This move could be viewed as a cop out since no promises mean no accountability.
The Liberals would have you believe that having a concrete objective is "irresponsible," and to some extent they're right. The government's role in terms of economic development is to create the environment that allows businesses to prosper and, in the process, hire people into well-paying, family-supporting jobs.
Taking it any further has proved about as successful as herding cats.
Just take a look back to 1997 and the NDP's Jobs and Timber Accord. Then-premier Glen Clark vowed to create 40,000 new jobs through the plan only to see businesses balk at committing to meeting the quota in exchange for a long list of concessions and regulatory changes.
The only kind of executive who would have gotten onboard is one who is not keenly aware of how exposed B.C. is to the ebbs and flows of the global economy, and would not have been an executive for very long.
Not long after the accord was announced, the global economy went on a pronounced slide that saw the local unemployment rate skyrocket.
Fast forward to Thursday, and Christy Clark's final roll out of the plan was made on the same day stock markets around the world took such a plunge that many are now talking of a second recession.
That's not to say the Liberals aren't taking at least one risk.
In a media conference call, jobs minister and local MLA Pat Bell announced a vow to open eight new mines and expand nine others around the province by 2015.
The strategy hinges on two elements:
1. Creation of a major investments office within Bell's ministry that will work with investors proposing significant projects in B.C. to co-ordinate and accelerate government's activities to support them. The office of about a half-dozen staff will be based in Victoria, Bell said, to have quick access to cabinet.
2. A commitment to establishing new relationships with First Nations and providing agreements that will make them "full partners" in the resource.
On that note, it's no surprised that on Friday, Clark and Bell met with the First Nations Summit.
In other words, meeting the goal will depend on coaxing the federal government to speed up an approval process that routinely takes a decade to complete.
Bell said that with the agreements with First Nations will help expedite that process, and it comes as no surprise to see Bell and aboriginal relations minister Mary Polak in North Vancouver on Friday to meet with the First Nations Summit.
The whole plan will come tumbling down if either the federal government or First Nations decline to get on the bandwagon - or if world demand for minerals dries up. On this aspect, the Liberals are rolling the dice.
Of course, we hope it all works out, and if it does, here's another challenge we'd like to see the Liberals take on: make the most of what's pulled out of the ground.
As much as mines produce hundreds of good-paying, family-supporting jobs, can Victoria find a way to encourage establishment of smelters and higher-level mineral processing on this side of the Pacific?
Assuming they're on track to meeting the goals for opening up new mines, the Liberals would be wise to spend a good part of the next three years thinking about ways to meet that goal.
-- Prince George Citizen
