Poor government policy helping drive residents away from British Columbia
By Grady Munro
A recent poll revealed that 36 per cent of British Columbians—that’s more than one in three residents—say they’re “seriously thinking” about leaving the province because of the cost of housing. Incidentally, last year B.C. experienced a net loss of 8,000 residents to other provinces. Given that the provincial government has failed to adequately address affordability woes, it’s no surprise that people want out.
British Columbia has some of the least affordable housing in Canada. It’s a simple supply and demand problem—housing costs rise when the number of would-be buyers or renters outpaces the number of available homes, and the province currently faces a generational shortage in housing. From 2018 to 2022, each year (on average) the province added 86,339 residents while only adding 39,776 home completions—which equals 2.2 new residents for every new house completed.
To fill this gap and restore housing affordability, an estimated 610,000 new homes must be built in the province by 2030. To meet this goal, annual housing completions must more than double. While the Eby government did introduce legislation earlier this year that begins to address the issue, mainly by helping reduce building fees, the government may not have gone far enough.
Housing affordability is not the only concern in B.C. According to the poll, many residents also worry about the cost of living, economic growth and government spending.
And British Columbians are right to be concerned. B.C. lags behind its regional neighbours (including Alberta, Washington and Oregon) on key measures of wellbeing such as per-person GDP (a broad measure of living standards) and employment income. In other words, British Columbians are worse off than residents in neighbouring jurisdictions. Yet despite this clear prosperity gap, the Eby government continues to pursue policies that make the problem worse.
For example, economic growth relies in large part on the ability of businesses to attract investment and capital to equip their workers with tools and technology that allow them to be more productive. Currently, a lack of business investment is driving a national emergency in terms of economic growth.