January 2015 BCBusiness 35 bcbusiness.ca
A
ccording to the Chinese zodiac, 2015 is
the year of the dreaded sheep. Sheep
are meek creatures, raised for slaugh-
ter—and babies born in the Year of the
Sheep, goes the superstition, grow up to
be followers rather than leaders. While
we can't speak to the prospects for 2015's new-
borns, we can say that, based on some research
we've done, the rest of us will likely be following
in the steady footsteps of 2014.
Our inaugural "State of B.C." survey was
conducted by Insights West, exclusively for
BCBusiness, and involved 803 British Columbian
adults—including an oversample of business
leaders (presidents, vice-presidents, executives,
directors and/or business owners who operate
in B.C.) to get a proper read on that market. The
survey explored how we felt about the state of our
personal finances, the provincial economy and
where things are going. Would we spend more?
Hire more? Change jobs?
For pollster Mario Canseco, the overall results
indicate a sense of calm—that things aren't fabu-
lous, but they're likely to remain stable on the
home, office and provincial front for the immedi-
ate future. Still, a few things stood out. "The one
thing that was really different from anything I've
seen in the past is expectations on inflation," Can-
seco says. "Groceries are number one on the list,
and it's something we would have never seen four
or five years ago. Gas was always tops."
The other thing he noticed: a deep-seated pessi-
mism on Vancouver Island. "There's this tendency
to be really upset at the status quo there," he says.
"And to be very frugal as well—that things are not
going to get any better, so I better just cut my losses
and take it easy and not try to make any rash deci-
sions. It's been almost like a country in itself."
to
Lead
or to
foLLow?
How British Columbians view the year ahead on the
home front, at the office and in the provincial economy.
An exclusive BCBusiness/Insights West survey
2 0 1 5
S t A t e o f B . C . S u r v e y
The survey was conducted between November 4 and November 7, 2014, and has a margin of error of +/-3.5%. Full results
are available on our website at BCBusiness.ca
