British Columbia and Its Regional Economies: An Overview of Research issues/La Colombie-Britannique et Ses Economies Regionales: Un Survol Des Enjeux De la Recherche

Abstract This essay introduces the articles in a special edition on the regional economies of British Columbia and sets them against a broad overview of contemporary economic trends and planning approaches. It brings to light the importance of the staples theory of Harold Innis in characterizing the province's spatial economy and then analyzes recent labour force and population changes. This review suggests that a simple interpretation of Innis's staples model of development is no longer applicable or even useful for analyzing the spatial dynamics of the province or developing regional policy. The recent planning initiatives of the BC government are also examined, including the '250 Region Program' and the 'BC Heartlands Strategy'. Overall, the essay argues for more multifaceted interpretations of the province's spatial framework and models of regional planning. Resume Ce texte introduit les articles d'un numero special sur les economies regionales de la Colombie-Britannique (C-B) et les place a travers un survol general des tendances economiques et approches de planification contemporaines. Il demontre l'importance de la theorie des produits fondamentaux de Harold Innis par rapport a la caracterisation de l'economie spatiale de la province et par la suite analyse les changements recents de la force ouvriere et de la population. Ce survol suggere qu'une interpretation simple du modele de developpement des produits fondamentaux (les matieres premieres) d'Innis n'est plus applicable ou meme utile pour analyser les dynamiques spatiales de la province ou developper une politique regionale. Les initiatives de planification recentes du gouvernement de la C-B sont aussi examinees, y compris le programe 'Region 250' et la strategie des regions centrales de la C-B (BC Heartlands Strategy). Globalement, cet essai argumente pour des interpretations a facettes multiples du cadre spatial de la province et des modeles de planification regionale. Introduction These are challenging times for British Columbia (BC). During 2003 the province was buffeted by the worst forest fires season for many decades, mad cow disease, floods, the SARS virus, the dampening effect on BC's exports of an unprecedented 20% jump in the Canadian dollar relative to the US currency, and punitive tariffs on softwood lumber in US markets (Finlayson 2003). Nonetheless, BC's relative economic growth pulled ahead of the national average, the first time this had happened in ten years (see the 2002-03 ranking of labour force growth in Table 1). Indeed, much of the 1990s was in stark contrast and characterized by the province's poor performance, especially in the area of business investment and non--energy exports. With a regional GDP (gross national product) of approximately $100 billion, BC is the third largest provincial economy in Canada. In 2000, its population stood at roughly 4.1 million, an increase of 24.0% over the 1990 level, realizing an average annual growth rate of 2.6% during the decade (Wood 2001). Even so, BC has suffered from a long-term structural decline that began in the 1980s and continued through the following decade. Moreover, in the late-1990s BC lost tens of thousands of residents per year to other provinces. At the end of the last decade under a New Democrat Patty (NDP) government (1992 to 2001), it became a 'have-not' province within Canada, (1) and in 2001 it dropped to 10th place among all provinces in terms of economic performance from fifth place in year 2000 (Finlayson 2001). Nonetheless, it continued to hold third position in Canada for levels of real personal disposable income per capita, a key measure of standard of living, and was placed sixth on the employment rate for 15 to 64 year olds in 2001, down from fifth place in year 2000 (British Columbia Progress Board 2002a). Against this backdrop, metropolitan Vancouver loomed even larger within the British Columbia economy. In 2002, it accounted for 53% of the province's GDP and 55% of all jobs. …

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