52 To p a n d b o t t o m : R o m a n S a m b o r s k y i / S h u t t e r s t o c k
B C B U S I N E S S . C A
J A N U A R Y/ F E B R U A R Y 2 0 2 5
MORE PREDICTIONS
FOR 2025...
Energy output will jump.
The commencement of liquefied natural
gas exports this year from the mammoth
LNG Canada terminal in Kitimat will boost
prices at the wellhead for natural gas pro-
ducers in Northeast B.C. and encourage
more drilling activity. The fly in the oint-
ment is the emissions caps imposed on the
industry by the
NDP government in 2017 as
part of its CleanBC plan. Even in the wake
of the
NDP's slim majority after the October
election, Peacock thinks the government
will ultimately revisit the CleanBC targets
and loosen the caps. "Government needs
the revenue," he explains.
We'll stop talking about
hybrid work. Maybe.
While employers from Amazon to the
federal government mandate unpopular
return-to-office policies, a study by Wil-
fred Laurier University professor Tammy
Schirle for the Conference Board of Canada
finds that the rate of remote and hybrid
work has stabilized over the past two years
at around one-quarter of Canadian employ-
ees—lower than the 42 percent in 2020
but nearly double the rate pre-pandemic.
And that's unlikely to change, as employ-
ers make concessions where they can to
retain valued workers. The office building
will not be consigned to history, therefore,
but don't expect a return to full occupancy
this year.
The education boom will end.
Higher education, public and private,
has been a growth industry for at least a
decade—an export industry, too, when it
comes to the swelling numbers of foreign
students studying at B.C. institutions. But
with the federal government's decision to
rein in the number of visas issued to non-
permanent residents—read: students and
temporary foreign workers—"that's fallen
off the table as a growth sector," Peacock
says. B.C. has the highest ratio of non-per-
manent residents of all the provinces, rep-
resenting 9.3 percent of the population. So
the policy change will have a big impact
here—positive for domestic students look-
ing for class spaces and accommodations,
but negative for schools and workers in
the sector.
The north will struggle to
retain population.
The impact of years of sawmill, pulp mill
and particle board plant closures and
reduced logging activity across the Cari-
boo and Northern B.C. has been masked
until now by the construction employment
created by energy megaprojects. With
those projects substantially complete, a
K O O L T U O
C I M O N O C E
