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Severe flooding, mandatory sick pay and “mismatches” in labour demand are among the headwinds facing the West Coast economy going into 2022, according to the latest forecast from the Business Council of B.C. (BCBC).
Economists at the council had predicted as recently as August the province’s GDP would expand 5.8% this year. This week’s new outlook has downgraded that growth trajectory to 5%.
Economic expansion will fall even further in 2022, reaching 4% as the pandemic recovery slows.
“The flooding that devastated B.C. communities in November, displacing families and businesses, and severing critical transportation connections, has also necessitated a downward recalibration,” wrote report co-authors Ken Peacock and David Williams, the BCBC’s chief economist and vice-president of policy, respectively.
