Quote:
Originally Posted by Caliplanner1
The hidden story with B.C.'s great national economic/employment numbers though is the local rate of (imported) inflation vis-a-vis slow/low domestic/provincial wage growth.  |
Yes, the growth of the BC economy benefits municipalities, but have not significantly raised the wages of local workers, because we are seen as an affordable labour market to service the large sums of foreign money entering this province.
Other than the few spurts of economic injections from industries such as film and IT, which are by no means the stars of BC's stellar economic growth compared to other provinces, the main reason why we are doing so well is due to one thing: foreign money, and perhaps 90% of that from Asia. Like it or not, Asia helps to boost the economy of this province, especially in the urban areas.
When it comes to foreign money, most of us here think of the notorious and hated foreign funds from Chinese investors who help inflate residential property prices, but fact is investments from Asia come from more than just that, although they are still mostly injected through the real estate industry. Li Ka-Shing's (Hong Kong) investments in the 90s created Yaletown. Coal Harbour was basically built with Asian money as well (Hong Kong and Taiwan). Now we have larger developments like the Quintet in Richmond, Trump tower, the Bay site and Little Mountain ( all from Malaysia) and upcoming developments like Plaza of Nations (Hong Kong and Singapore). Rize property's ventures into downtown and Main Street help to channel in Taiwanese and other Asian money. Aspac's River Green projects continue to inject funds from Hong Kong and China, and the list goes on. Almost the entire City of Richmond and many suburbs are continuously being funded with Asian money. The Parc's casino/hotel development is one of the few from huge US corporations (Las Vegas casino).
Property investments and immigration in turn help many of the service industries to grow, namely in transportation including airlines, retail, financial services, etc. They inject large sums of money into City coffers which allow municipalities to receive more funds to build and maintain amenities like parks, libraries, schools, and also help in funding for the arts, special events, etc. The education industry, especially Tertiary education, is also boosted with an increase in municipal tax base and foreign enrolments (international students pay quite a lot more). The phenomenal growth of BC colleges such as UBC is proof.
Although we are economically sound with lots of jobs in various sectors available, all these funds do not help in raising the salaries of the middle class, as we are not a society of Research and Development, or innovation, or white collar management. We are just a low-cost (by wealthy nation standards) society in support of the rich who make their money elsewhere.
One example is this, which is very telling: see how asian money helps to build 2000 affordable housing in Vancouver that the government does not have to spend on, through the sale of the Little Mountain land to TA Global (Malaysia) for 300mil:
https://www.biv.com/article/2016/8/holborns-big-plans-little-mountain/
Essentially, a developing nation is helping to maintain our welfare system.
As for other high paying societies in London, Berlin, Bern, Hong Kong, New York or Singapore, huge local corporations that pay their workers well alone can help the government support such a system, and they don't have to rely directly on foreign investments like Vancouver does.
Prev
Linear Mode
