EDITORIAL & OPINION — Silent majority less silent — Ears to hear

A new poll suggests British Columbians are more worried about their economy than ever. More than one in three citizens of Canada’s most westerly province, or 36%, say the economy is their greatest concern. In contrast, environmental concerns tied for 10th place (with political and government issues) at 5% of the population.

Jobs and unemployment ranked as the second-biggest worry, at 26%, in the Angus Reid poll. This sends a clear message that the economy and related issues should receive more attention from political leaders, something business leaders have been saying to deaf ears for some time.

Granted, B.C.’s economy has been pummeled by low prices for many resource commodities, including mined products such as coal, copper, zinc and precious metals. It has been hammered by a decline in the fisheries and an equally dramatic decline in revenues from the forestry industry. And many of the Asians who came to the province in advance of the Hong Kong handover to China have returned home, taking their money with them, or have had their fortunes clipped by the Asian financial crisis.

These and other factors have Premier Glen Clark scrambling to attract non-resource industries to the province in order to diversify the economy. He has argued that B.C. has the entrepreneurial talent and well-educated workforce necessary to create a strong, knowledge-based high-technology sector.

Clark is right about all those things. But he isn’t able to grasp the fact that the high-tech sector is not tied to fixed assets (like mines or manufacturing plants), which means it can go anywhere, anytime — which means that any company with the choice of setting up shop in B.C. or neighboring Alberta or Washington state would be foolish not to recognize the difference between personal and corporate taxes in the competing jurisdictions.

The top marginal tax rate in B.C. stands at 54.2%, compared with 45.6% in Alberta. And that “top” rate now kicks in for anyone earning more than $59,000 per year, a major deterrent to attracting talented people.

Clark also is forgetting another important fact: high-tech companies do a lot more than create software accounting programs, video games and web sites. High-tech industries have grown up around the mining industry and other resource industries, helping put Canada on the map as a centre of excellence in these sectors. Local geophysical companies are now selling both their instrumentation and expertise at home and abroad. Supply and service companies are marketing their home-grown technology and skills from Chile to China. Clark also is forgetting about the accomplishments of the province’s contractors, consultants and engineers, who today have spread their wings to the four corners of the earth.

The premier needs to recognize that high-tech industries and resource industries are not mutually exclusive and that putting in place pro-business policies and a better tax regime will keep these businesses at home and attract more in the years ahead.

But first, labor policies need to be made fair and more responsive to the concerns of employers, particularly small businesses; the tax rate should be cut by at least 5% and the government should get its own financial house in order; and hydro rates could be made more competitive if the government weaned itself off the handsome dividend extracted each year from B.C. Hydro’s till.

The government needs to be more responsive to the so-called “silent majority,” rather than special-interest groups, who make the most noise. Among these groups are environmental extremists intent on shutting down resource industries and creating more parks and wilderness preserves, and labor unionists who seem stuck in a 1950s time warp.

Politicians the world over are learning of the dangers of ignoring the wishes of “the people,” the now not-so-silent majority. If recent polls are any indication, B.C.’s ruling New Democrats will find this out soon enough in the next election.