Clark said she will stick to the provincial government’s fixed election calendar, meaning the next provincial election will be in May 14, 2013, four years after the 2009 vote.

Doubts about a provincial election grew last week when voters rejected the BC Liberals’ HST program in favour of returning to separate provincial and federal sales taxes.

Clark, who took over as leader of the BC Liberals and as premier this spring from Gordon Campbell, had been indicating she wanted an early vote to secure her own mandate.

The decision by Clark to work on job creation comes just as a report was released indicating the northwest isn’t ready for the number of jobs expected from a planned increase in major projects.

The report, prepared through a committee of government, industry and other representatives looking at the impact of BC Hydro’s Northwest Transmission Line, says people in the region are not trained now and are not being trained to be part of billions of dollars worth of economic activity.

Without trained people here, the report continues, companies will have to bring in outside workers in order to build their projects.

For his part, provincial NDP leader Adrian Dix believes Clark called off a fall election because she would not be able to win.

There had also been suggestions of voter fatigue – there was a federal election this spring and BC voters also took part in the mail-in HST referendum.

As well, voters will be facing local government and school district elections which are set for November.

Clark said she will call the legislature back this fall to work on her jobs creation plan.