With a mission to inform, empower, celebrate and advocate for British Columbia's current and aspiring business leaders, BCBusiness go behind the headlines and bring readers face to face with the key issues and people driving business in B.C.
Issue link: http://digital.canadawide.com/i/950283
TANYA gOEhRINg; *SOURCE: BC STATS immigration, small business, the trade network and technol- ogy. There's one further thing, which is BC Stats and data generally. Other than housing, it's the non-resource side of the B.C. economy. The logic in bringing it all together is to be able to serve people's interests better than by breaking it up into smaller juris- dictions. The challenge is to create those synergies, like any process of organiza- tional change. On job creation, what are you doing differ- ently from the bC Liberals? After 2011 the previous government focused on the LNG sector; they made a fairly calcu- lated bet. Most of their economic ministries and activ- ity were subordi- nated to that effort— not entirely, but I did hear concerns from different sec- tors that they weren't being listened to because it didn't fit into the LNG basket. fUN fACT Ralston's favourite British Columbia wine is Steller's Jay Mountain Jay Brut B ruce Ralston oversees a portfolio that reaches into many corners of the provincial economy. As head of the new ministry of jobs, trade and technology, the NDP stalwart handles three files that the previous BC Liberal govern- ment allocated to separate cabinet posts. Ralston may be a rookie cabinet minister, but he brings plenty of political and business experience to the job. Now serving his fourth term as MLA for Surrey-Whalley, the Vic- toria native earned history and law degrees from UBC and an MA in history from the University of Cambridge. He ran his own law firm in Surrey for 25 years, enter- ing politics by serving as a local city councillor from 1988 to 1993. Ralston, who was first elected to the B.C. legislature in 2005, has been Opposition critic for several portfolios, including finance and interna- tional trade. From 2009 until last year, the father of three headed the Select Standing Committee on Public Accounts. The minister responsible for small business, Ralston chairs the Small Business Roundtable, whose members include entre- preneurs from throughout the province. He sat on the board of Vancouver City Savings Credit Union from 1995 to 2006, serv- ing as chair for two years. Why did your government combine jobs, trade and tech- nology into a single portfolio? When I talk to people in the business community, I say that I've got responsibility for Bruce ralston The minister of jobs, trade and technology outlines his plans to keep B.C. economically competitive by Nick Rockel THE CoNvERSATIoN We're looking more broadly at the whole of the economy and every region. We are devel- oping a longer-term economic vision. With our partners, we've appointed B.C.'s first innovation commissioner, Alan Winter, who will secure funding and champion B.C. tech in Ottawa and abroad, and we are creat- ing an Innovation Commis- sion that will focus specifically on services to technology. The second thing is the Emerging Economy Task Force, which is in the process of being created. It will endeavour to take a longer view of the economy over the horizon, not driven by the political cycle. British Columbia's a pretty suc- cessful subnational jurisdiction, but in a very competitive world, with a relatively small number of people, how can we be suc- cessful in the long run? How will you tackle the labour shortage in the service industry and other sectors? The Fair Wages Commission will address the issue of wages. Now, whether it's purely a wages problem, I don't think so. Part of the problem in some parts of the province is the cost of housing; it doesn't enable people to live close to jobs because they can't afford to rent or buy property. So we're working on the hous- ing side of it. On the skills training side, the problem I hear in some sec- tors is they don't have people who are trained specifically for the kind of work they are offering. How can we create more high-paying jobs in b.C.? I'm not sure the government has a strong interventionist ApRIL 2018 BCBusiness 21 tECh toNIC* The technology sector helps B.C. advance economically $29.8 billion Revenue generated by the B.C. tech sec- tor in 2016, a 9.2- percent surge over the previous year and a new record 10,236 B.C. tech businesses in 2016, a 3.3-percent increase $1,690 Average 2016 weekly wage of a B.C. tech employee, versus $920 for the average worker RW AK