Despite a deficit of nearly $10 billion this year, the B.C. government has devoted a half billion dollars over three years to an Crown corporation investment fund with a broad range of goals: homegrown technology companies, high-paying jobs, a cleaner environment, promoting diversity and advancing Indigenous reconciliation.

B.C. Jobs Minister Ravi Kahlon calls InBC a B次元官网网址減eople-planet-profitB次元官网网址� investment fund, offering B次元官网网址減atient capitalB次元官网网址� to help startups expand rather than be bought up by international players. The investment fund was promised in Premier John HorganB次元官网网址檚 B次元官网网址淪trongerBCB次元官网网址� economic recovery plan, launched last fall days before a surprise election call.

B.C. Liberal jobs critic Todd Stone, who founded a Kamloops software company before he was elected as an MLA, questioned Kahlon this week about B.C.B次元官网网址檚 competitiveness for attracting and retaining entrepreneurs and skilled workers, including tax rates on high earners.

B次元官网网址淲hen the facts are that a software developer earns $27,000 less in British Columbia than they do in Ontario to start with, when weB次元官网网址檙e staring down lower income tax rates next door in Alberta B次元官网网址� when weB次元官网网址檙e staring down no income tax in the state of WashingtonB次元官网网址�. These are all our competitors,B次元官网网址� Stone told the B.C. legislature May 18.

B.C. Green MLA Adam Olsen questioned Kahlon on the need for B次元官网网址渟trategic capitalB次元官网网址� that isnB次元官网网址檛 looking for a quick return. Olsen agreed with Stone that the COVID-19 pandemic put investment on hold around the world, and asked if now is the time for B次元官网网址減utting $500 million of public money into a space that has billions and billions of dollars of private capital looking to be spent.B次元官网网址�

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Kahlon said the fund is to assist companies to grow without being taken over and leaving B.C. to expand. B次元官网网址淲eB次元官网网址檝e heard the most amount of excitement from the clean tech sector, which sees an opportunity for them to access capital and stay here in British Columbia,B次元官网网址� he said.

When InBC April 27, the ministry said its target was a modest annual return of five per cent on public money invested. A board of directors has since been appointed, chaired by VanCity CEO Christine Bergeron and including former finance minister Carole James, Susan Trottier, vice president of First Nations Bank Trust, and Iglika Ivanova, an economist with the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives. Deputy jobs minister Bobbi Plecas and deputy finance minister Heather Wood are also directors, with a chief investment officer to be appointed this fall.

The NDP government created InBC by converting a dormant Crown corporation started by the previous B.C. Liberal administration in 2001, called the B.C. Immigrant Investment Fund. Its purpose was to receive federal money from its immigrant investor program to make low-interest loans for schools, hospitals and other infrastructure, and Ottawa ended that program in 2014.

tfletcher@blackpress.ca
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