CCPA Submission to BC Budget Consultations 2019

CCPA Submission to BC Budget Consultations 2019 SUBMISSION TO THE SELECT STANDING COMMITTEE ON FINANCE AND GOVERNMENT SERVICES OF THE LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY OF BC Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, BC Office OCTOBER 15, 2018 Introduction We are pleased to offer this submission to the 2019 BC Budget Consultations on behalf of the BC Office of the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives. [...] Prices rose faster on Vancouver Island (14 per cent compared) and the Fraser Valley (11 per cent) over the last 12 months.3 Most of the speculative forces that have pushed up the market in recent years have abated, and there is a possibility of a correction in the real estate market as a short- to medium-term risk for the BC economy. [...] BC consumer debt levels per capita continued to climb in 2017, and remain the highest in the country (19 per cent higher than the Canadian average).4 The Bank of Canada estimates that about 14 per cent of indebted households in BC owe 350 per cent or more of their income, the highest share of heavily indebted households in the country (for reference, the Canadian average is 8 per cent). [...] The bad news is that some parts of the province, including the Kootenay and North Coast and Nechako regions have yet to recover the jobs lost in the recession nine years ago, while Thompson/Okanagan and the Cariboo have practically the same number of jobs today as in 2008. [...] There is an urgent need for the government to address current trends in BC’s forests and forest industry in order to better protect the provincial economy as a whole and the economy of rural, resource-dependent communities in particular.