B.C.’s success in cultivating economic diversity is Step 1 in securing a robust fiscal future for the province. Step 2 is building intensity: a concentration of industry and innovation to establish more than a startup culture.
That requires a prevailing business environment that builds industry hubs to attract talent and enterprise from other regions rather than merely seeding startups only to watch them move to the United States or elsewhere when they reach a size that outgrows the region’s infrastructure and investment capacity.
Head offices are the main ingredient in developing that intensity.
Unfortunately, B.C.’s head office head count is heading in the wrong direction.
According to recent BC Stats numbers, the number of head offices in the province dropped close to 2% between 2014 and 2015: to 307 from 313.
B.C. is not the only province to suffer head office erosion. BC Stats noted that, aside from New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island, the number of head offices in every province declined between 2014 and 2015. Overall, Canada’s head office count dropped 1.3% during that time.
On the bright side, the number of head office jobs in B.C. was up slightly in 2015 (0.6%) to 17,394, which contrasted with that number in Alberta, where it dropped 3.3%.
Also, as Business in Vancouver reported earlier this year (“Port’s competition on EU radar” – issue 1427; March 7-13), Metro Vancouver is now on global radars as an emerging star in such important trade arenas as international shipping.
B.C. is blessed with abundant
resources and a strategic location in a trade triangle connecting the world’s biggest economies.
Columbia if the province hopes to progress beyond being a farm team for more ambitious and innovative and less complacent players in the North American economy.
But government and business need to do more than just leverage those natural attributes.
Banking on happy accidents of nature to do the economy’s heavy lifting is no longer an option for British
