VANCOUVER — B.C.’s NDP government unveiled its long-awaited economic recovery plan Thursday. Put together by Innovation Minister Ravi Kahlon with the help of rockstar economist Mariana Mazzucato, it focuses on inclusive and clean growth, singling out some tech sectors as priorities. It also creates “missions” to help the province accomplish its goals, and to track progress on those missions, with the premise that “what gets measured gets done.”

It’s an update to the province’s StrongerBC plan, released in September 2020 to steer its post-pandemic recovery. “We have come a long way, but there’s still so much more to do,” said Kahlon during a press conference Thursday, saying this plan looks ahead 10 to 15 years. “It sets true, big goals for B.C. to achieve over the long term.”

Though the plan was light on specifics about its implementation—it’s possible next week’s provincial budget will reveal more—it did contain some major announcements. Here’s what you need to know:

A life-sciences and biomanufacturing hub

B.C. houses more than 2,000 companies in the life-sciences sector, according to the report, and is home to the fastest growing life-sciences sector in Canada. During the COVID-19 pandemic, “virtually every COVID-19 vaccine candidate that reached late-stage development in 2020 used components that were consulted, initiated, developed or manufactured by a B.C. company or scientist,” the report reads. The province plans to position itself “as a worldwide life-sciences hub,” and aims to nurture new talent, develop new lab space and take other actions to grow the sector.

An agritech centre

“We are committed to making B.C. a global player in the agritech marketplace,” the report reads, noting the province has more than 150 companies developing and using technologies to boost productivity, sustainability and food security. The province wants to establish an Agritech Centre of Excellence for government, industry, academic and Indigenous partners to collaborate. The centre will aim to help startups grow and scale, helping with research and development, commercialization and mentorship. The lack of resources for scale-ups is one common complaint from the province’s tech sector. During Thursday’s press conference, Premier John Horgan said that Kahlon and Agriculture Minister Lana Popham would be making an announcement Saturday “with respect to expanding our agritech component.”

The plan promises more broadly to help “B.C.’s high-tech sector find talent and scale up.” That language was welcomed by BC Tech Association CEO Jill Tipping, who called it “great to see.” She’s been working with 10 other organizations in the province to lobby for tens of millions of dollars in government funding to create a local version of Ontario-based ScaleUp Platform.

ESG in the spotlight

“British Columbia’s high standards for environmental protection, social support and democratic governance are an important and growing economic advantage,” the report reads. The province will develop an environmental, social and governance (ESG) strategy that includes creating an ESG Centre of Excellence. It hopes the centre will help attract conscientious investors, facilitate ESG investments in the province and diversify markets for the province’s products “under a respected and trustworthy ESG brand.”

During consultations, the province heard about its “huge opportunity” concerning its “strong [ESG] principles,” said Kahlon. 

Creating the centre will require consultations, he said, but there’s already some sense of what to expect. “I think one of the main things that we’ve heard is: ‘Don’t create your own brand. Work with other jurisdictions so that every jurisdiction is not creating their own standards.’” Kahlon said much of the work will happen between him, Environment and Climate Change Strategy Minister George Heyman and Energy Minister Bruce Ralston over the next few months.

Addressing the talent shortage

“A skills and talent shortage looms over the B.C. economy,” the report reads. It projects more than one million job openings in the province, most of which will require post-secondary training that will not be filled without intervention. The government plans to advance training initiatives from B.C.’s economic-recovery plan released in September 2020. It also pledged to create 2,000 tech-relevant spaces in public post-secondary institutions and provide more graduate scholarships and internships for innovation, among other initiatives.

“Access to talent is the number one barrier to growth facing Canadian scale-ups,” said Tessa Seager, the Council of Canadian Innovators’ director of government affairs in B.C., in a statement. The plan “lays the groundwork to overcome that.”

A new trades-and-tech complex at BCIT

The province will also try to address the talent crunch by contributing $136.6 million toward a planned Trades and Technology Complex at the British Columbia Institute of Technology. The post-secondary institution will provide the remaining $26 million required for the project. It will have four buildings, including a four-storey, 7,670-square-metre building, with construction expected to begin in 2023. BCIT’s latest five-year capital plan anticipated it would contribute $32 million to the project and expected $181 million from the province.

Other highlights

• To help with affordability, and support people and families, the government wants to implement free bus travel for kids, eliminate student-loan interest and expand affordable child care. B.C. signed an agreement with the federal government last July to reach an average $10 per day cost for some child-care spaces before 2027.
• The government wants to expand high-speed internet connectivity, and “aggressively accelerate the timeline to connect all B.C. communities.”
• The plan pledges support for co-developing an external Indigenous-led agency that will focus on Indigenous economic development.
• The plan also promises to increase domestic manufacturing.

Tracking progress

The province intends to measure the plan’s success beyond the traditional metric of gross domestic product. It will also focus on what it called “well-being indicators,” such as affordable housing and post-secondary training. Much of the report’s framing—laying out specific missions and tracking measures—likely come from the participation of Mazzucato, an economics professor and founding director of the University College London Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose. The provincial government enlisted her help in June 2021. She’s known for her arguments in favour of a mission-driven approach and a triple-bottom-line approach—one also adopted by the province’s new $500-million strategic investment fund.

What’s missing

The CCI’s Seager highlighted a few things needed to complement the plan. “Our domestic innovators look forward to real progress on a data strategy, an IP policy and modernized privacy legislation.” The provincial government has tasked Kahlon with developing an IP strategy and, while the report mentions that it is in the works, it provides no further update.

Also missing are more measures to solve the talent crunch. Tipping called the creation of 2,000 post-secondary spaces “a great start.” However, she said, “there are job openings available in tech for 10 times that number.”

The Frontier Collective, a new group formed to boost the province’s metaverse-linked tech companies, criticized the plan for being too focused on the province’s resource industries instead of emerging homegrown firms. Co-founder and CEO Dan Burgar said in a statement to The Logic he’s “very disappointed” with a plan he thinks is “stuck in the past.”

Some also pointed out a lack of detail for how much of the vision will be accomplished. “While the plan usefully articulates what the government will measure, there is less detail on what actions in the plan will lead to more growth, a higher standard of living, and additional investment into our province,” said Bridgitte Anderson, CEO of the Greater Vancouver Board of Trade, in a statement.

Similarly, Tipping said in a statement to The Logic that she’ll “be interested in the details of the economic plan as those emerge to see how the supply measures meet industry demand” for filling the 150,000 new tech job openings her association predicts will come over the next decade.

What’s next 

The report comes ahead of B.C.’s budget next Tuesday. Last year’s budget firmed up plans for the InBC Strategic Investment Fund, expanded $10-a-day child care, offered more funding to CleanBC and businesses recovering from the pandemic, and focused on training.