Ottawa splits BC from Prairies for new economic development agency

[Sheba]

B.C. is getting its own dedicated economic development agency, with a plan for a boosted budget and offices throughout the province, according to the federal minister responsible.

Economic Development Minister Mélanie Joly said Ottawa will separate B.C. from the Western Economic Diversification organization it currently shares with Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba. A new B.C.-focused agency will be launching with details in coming months, she said.

The move comes after a series of meetings with local businesses, chambers-of-commerce and entrepreneurs in which Joly said it was evident B.C.’s economy had diverse needs from other provinces and that Ottawa had an unacceptably low public profile there compared with other regions.

“Based on that wanting to be more B.C.-specific, being ready for the recovery plan rollout, and making sure that businesses and people in B.C. have equal access and equal chances to have access to this support we need to have a new economic development agency for B.C.,” Joly said Tuesday.

“The idea is to have more support on the ground. Right now there’s only one office for Western Economic Development in Vancouver. That’s why it is important to be there and then followup with entrepreneurs that are on-site, in the Interior or on (Vancouver) Island to make sure we can then help them invest in their companies and grow their business and employ even more people.”

The dedicated economic development agency for B.C. could have financial implications for the province, because the regional agencies have distributed hundreds-of-millions-of-dollars in COVID-19 aid on behalf of the federal government since the pandemic began.

The western diversification agency has paid $106 million in COVID-19 aid to B.C., which is earmarked for local federal officials to offer repayable loans to businesses that might not otherwise qualify for the main federal pandemic assistance programs.

The last time Ottawa created a new economic development agency was after the 2009 global recession, with the creation of the Federal Economic Development Agency for Southern Ontario.

Vancouver Sun

[Migrant_Coconut]

Good news, but I hope that Ottawa remembers that extra oversight is useless without extra funding.

[Denscity]

Wow they actually thought about us! And I thought only JT knew where we were.

[Sheba]

Originally Posted by Denscity

Wow they actually thought about us! And I thought only JT knew where we were.

...and then there's the saying 'BC may be 3,000 miles from Ottawa, but Ottawa is three million miles from BC.'

[svlt]

Never made sense that WD encompassed BC to MB when this province is so economiaclly different from the rest of the Prairies. QC and Ontario have their own economic development agencies and the Atlantic has one for all four provinces, makes sense for BC to have one separate from AB/SK/MB.

Great news.

[Sheba]

Feds list locations to spread out B.C.-specific economic development agency

The federal government will launch its promised B.C. economic development agency with regional offices in the northeast, the northwest, the Kootenays, Okanagan, and on Vancouver Island, Economic Development Minister Melanie Joly announced today.

It will add a Lower Mainland office in Surrey to be called Pacific Economic Development, Joly said, which will have $553 million in post-pandemic assistance to work with over the next five years.

...

Western Economic Diversification has one office in Vancouver, which Joly said she thought was “an injustice,” so Pacific Economic Development, or PacifiCan, will branch out with offices in Surrey, Victoria and Campbell River in the Lower Mainland and Vancouver Island.

Prince Rupert, Prince George and Fort St. John will also have offices, as will Kelowna and Cranbrook.

“Obviously, the impact of a federal agency is not as strong when its footprint is limited to one big city,” Joly said. With PacifiCan, “We’re there to help rural economies diversify themselves. We’re there to help entrepreneurs create new jobs by accessing new markets.”

...

Then-prime minister Brian Mulroney created Western Economic Diversification in response to a 1980s downturn in the oil sector, which was followed by the creation of a southern Ontario agency after the 2008 financial crisis.

“My job was to create one following the pandemic and climate crisis,” that recognizes the fact that B.C.’s economy has evolved a lot over the last 30 years.

[trofirhen]

Originally Posted by Sheba

Vancouver Sun

..... whew !! and about time !! Lumping BC into the West with the prairies as it has been was so lame. We deserved to be cast as a region of our own 40 years ago.