The Northern Development Initiative Trust (NDIT) has released its “State of the North” report for 2017, providing an overview of northern B.C.’s economic outlook. Among the local highlights of the report is the dependence of the Cariboo-Chilcotin/Lillooet region on small businesses, with the report showing that 90 per cent of the businesses in the area employ fewer than 20 people, and more than 55 per cent employ five or fewer people.
A total of 2,188 businesses were identified in the region. Most of the businesses with more than 20 employees in the region are in agriculture, forestry, wood product manufacturing, and accommodation and food service industries. Between 2011 and 2016, the number of businesses with employees increased modestly. Most of the growth was in the construction and accommodation and food services industries.
The report puts the highest living wage for the area at $17.45 per hour (100 Mile House), with the lowest living wage in Quesnel ($16.39). According to Living Wage Canada, “The living wage is calculated as the hourly rate at which a household can meet its basic needs, once government transfers have been added to the family’s income and deductions have been subtracted. The living wage gets families out of severe financial stress by lifting them out of poverty and providing a basic level of economic security.”
Median wages in the Cariboo-Chilcotin/Lillooet region tend to be below wages in other parts of northern B.C. The living wage in the region is, however, comparable to other regions outside Metro Vancouver, the Fraser Valley, and the Capital Region.
The report also states that the regional average median house price in the first quarter of 2017 was $219,750, up from $191,333 in the first quarter of 2016. House prices in the region are lower than in other parts of northern B.C., and affordability is considered good.
Commercial and industrial properties account for approximately 64 percent of municipal tax revenues in the Cariboo-Chilcotin/Lillooet region. Logan Lake and Quesnel derive a significantly larger share of their tax revenues from commercial and industrial properties than other communities in the region, while Ashcroft, Lillooet, and Wells derive significantly less from commercial and industrial properties.
Tax revenue shares measure the reliance of municipalities on tax revenues from different categories of properties. Urban areas and those regions with more diversified economies generally have a more diversified tax base and are less reliant on commercial and industrial properties or single industries for tax revenues.
According to the report, 36 per cent of the tax burden in Ashcroft falls on commercial and industrial properties; 52 per cent on residential properties; and 12 per cent on other. In Cache Creek, 51 per cent of the tax burden falls on commercial and industrial properties; 42 per cent on residential properties; and seven per cent on other.
In Clinton the numbers are 54 per cent (commercial and industrial), 45 per cent (residential), and one per cent (other). In In Lytton, 35 per cent of the tax burden falls on commercial and industrial properties; 25 per cent falls on residential properties; and 45 per cent falls on other.
Northern Development Initiative Trust is an independent, non-profit corporation; a catalyst stimulating economic growth through investments in grassroots, community-led projects. The Trust was created on the premise that “the best economic development decisions for the North should be made in the North.”
The Trust serves more than 70 per cent of the province, from Lytton to Fort Nelson and from Valemount to Haida Gwaii, including 39 incorporated communities, nine regional districts, one regional municipality, and 88 First Nations communities.
The report notes that “Region-wide, our economic base, unsurprisingly, remains heavily dependent on commodity-based industries such as forestry, oil and gas, mining, and agriculture. Still, tourism and manufacturing play a key role in our economy, and aquaculture, albeit small, is a growing player in coastal communities.
“Yet even though we’re known for our industry backbone, Northern B.C. is truly the land of small business. Take agriculture, for example. There are 3,633 agriculture businesses in our region; however, the vast majority of them are small businesses with few or no permanent employees, suggesting they rely largely on seasonal or contract workers or are family-run.
“Northern B.C. remains a vastly more affordable place to live than other areas of B.C. such as Metro Vancouver, and has a relatively younger population and somewhat higher labour force participation rates than other parts of B.C.”
The report adds that “One of the questions Northerners have about our economy most often is: how much do we contribute to B.C.’s economy as a whole? This report is not designed to answer that question, in part because it’s difficult to answer but also because this report is not meant to argue that one part of B.C.’s economy is more important than another’s.
“That said, because it comes up often enough, we took a high-level stab at it. Unfortunately, there’s no regional GDP figure for Northern B.C. to make it an easy question to answer. This is in part because no one can quite agree on where Northern B.C. begins (some, jokingly, attest that the border lies in the Fraser Canyon “beyond Hope”, while others figure it’s somewhere around 100 Mile House, and others still argue that the north doesn’t truly begin until you cross the Pine Pass), but also because statistical agencies don’t necessarily gather this data on sub-regional levels.
“Perhaps another way to phrase the question is this way: how much does rural B.C. contribute to the provincial economy? Well, from a commodity export perspective, rural British Columbia accounts for, on a 10-year average, roughly 78 per cent of the total value of B.C.’s annual exports, or, on an annual basis, somewhere between $24 and $30 billion.
“It’s important to note, however, that ‘rural B.C.’ includes mid- and North Vancouver Island, the Thompson-Nicola, Okanagan, and Kootenays. That said, in years when natural gas, metallurgical coal, and lumber prices trade at higher values, Northern B.C.’s share of rural B.C.’s contribution to exports is higher. For example, in 2016 alone, forest and energy product exports accounted for 56 per cent of the total value of B.C.’s exports, or approximately $21.5 billion. Yet this data doesn’t account for service exports and their contribution to our total trade balance. Still, it’s clear that without rural B.C., and Northern B.C. as the largest part of it, B.C. would suffer from an incredible trade deficit.”
The full NDIT “State of the North” report can be read at http://bit.ly/2r5dmlw.
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