EXCERPT:
Business Council of B.C. chief policy officer Jock Finlayson said his organization is supportive of measures in the budget that include Indigenous reconciliation, gender equality and support for innovation and research.
What’s missing, however, are measures to come to grips with the much more competitive landscape that businesses are dealing because of U.S. protectionism and U.S. tax reforms.
“There’s a continuing erosion of our relative attractiveness for investment to the U.S. in traded-good industries,” said Finlayson.
That includes energy, all other natural resources and manufacturing, he said.
Finlayson pointed to the prospective liquefied natural gas export industry in British Columbia that never materialized.
