BC Government Sets Their Sights:

The BC government is optimistic in its latest budget update released last Friday. They are forecasting a budget surplus of $669 million, a projection which is $450 million higher than the February’s budget. Finance Minister Carole James is basing this on B.C.’s economic growth projections that are among the highest in Canada with 2.2 per cent this year and 1.8 per cent in 2019.

Opposition Liberal Leader Andrew Wilkinson criticized the government’s forecast saying, “Carole James is admitting that the only NDP plan is to shrink the real estate part of the economy, reduce the value of peoples houses and have a dramatic drop in the construction sector, and nothing is going to change in terms of affordability because prices are staying where they’ve been,” he said.

To which Carol James retorted, “The biggest risk to B.C.’s economic growth right now, one of the biggest risks, is the issue of unaffordable housing,” she said. “We aren’t able to attract employees. We aren’t able to retain people in business because of the increasing price in housing.”

We don’t agree with Carol James’ assessment, and we feel her forecast will fall short of reality. Her governments real estate cooling measures will have a far more dramatic impact than the government is predicting.

After all, 225,500 are currently employed in the construction industry. That’s nearly six percent of the over-18 population of BC working in construction.

Construction’s Rank as the number one Employer in BC’s Goods Sector according to Labour Force Statistics Data, Statistics Canada.  https://www.bccassn.com/media/bc-industry-stats-2017.pdf

BC has the lowest provincial unemployment rate of 4.8 per cent. The BC government seems bent on raising it by putting construction workers out of work.

Mathieu Powell/President
BC Real Estate Today
Main Office: 778-425-4644
Sales:  250-516-6287
www.bcrealestate.today/contact-us.html
www.bcrealestate.today

 

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