The immediate social cost is high, but in the long run a large influx of immigrants will help build our society
Immigration is not quite a dirty word in Canada, but it is becoming a scary one. Who is and will be coming into Canada? How many and from where? Are they going to disrupt our housing market, our health care, our schools, our way of life? What are they going to cost us? Canada has…
Weigh public spending on today's programs against how much those programs will cost Canadians in the longer term
Personal budgeting isn't fun. If you spend more than you make over the long haul, it will be your downfall. But do the same rules apply to government budgets? How should we judge a provincial or federal budget? Government budget items must be measured on their benefits to the individual. What we think about each item depends on…
At least in B.C., and Canada, we don’t have to donate half our business to a corrupt government or its cronies
Many people have asked me why anyone would start a business in Vancouver. (Sometimes they ask why B.C. or even Canada.) Why indeed? Look at the high cost of real estate. Consider the high tax levels, including the now rarely mentioned PST. It is hard to find people with enough skills to fill the high…
Apparently not all Vancouverites understand the need for jobs
Port Metro Vancouver needs more land to expand its services, but it is running up against a wall of local push-back. The port is vital to the economy of Vancouver, British Columbia and Canada. In a global economy, it is a door through which our resource exports go out the many imports that enable us…Surely First Nations and union leaders should be held to the same standards as other Canadians
Ask a thief why he robs banks and he will often reply because that is where the money is. Most of us are not thieves, but we live in a materialistic society where the desirability of wealth and its trappings are constantly around us. Since earning money takes time and our efforts are not rewarded…
Big banks will survive only if they adjust to a world where their traditional dominant position can no longer be taken for granted
Canada is known for its stability and reliability, and nothing is more stable and reliable than our chartered banks. Remember the financial crisis in 2008? While major financial institutions around the world trembled and some fell, Canada’s banks were unshaken and unmoved. The shares of our big banks are the bluest of blue chips, offering…
Here's why tourism is going to be even bigger and more important in 2016
As our holiday greetings move away from Happy Holidays to Happy New Year, we start wondering about the prospects for employment and income that a growing economy brings. The prospects are not in what Jock Finlayson of the Business Council of British Columbia calls the industrial sector. That sector consists of B.C.’s traditional resource industries,…
don't expect any growth to come from these sectors
As we get ready to change our calendars, we reflect on the year that has passed and peer into the misty future. Great is not a word that many would use to describe 2015. In British Columbia, the economy bumbled along, doing slightly better than Canada's as a whole, which was held up by housing…
Employers are now actively looking for unskilled workers - those with the skills that don't require a post-secondary education
Two unusual changes are emerging in demographics and the demand for workers. Our population is aging and birth rates in Canada have been hovering below the replacement level of about two kids per woman since the mid-1960s. Death rates have been dropping steadily for all age groups, giving us a longer-living, older population. In the…
98% of us work for small or medium firms
October was Small Business Month. Did you notice? If you checked the business media, you probably found some upbeat stories with pictures of bright young people who had started a little business and were now offering food services, tech support or e-tail to their community or, more broadly, electronically. Everything was upbeat. Growth and success…