British Columbia is a famously beautiful place to live, but a rising cost of living including unaffordable housing may be enough to send some residents searching for other pastures, even if they’re not quite as green.
New data from the non-profit Angus Reid Institute finds residents across the province, indeed, at least half in every region, saying that the BC NDP is not focusing enough on addressing their own housing needs. This is an issue that has been seemingly intractable for two decades, and though new housing supply has been a significant focus in recent years, and B.C. now leads the nation in housing starts per capita, residents continue to face evident challenges. The group most likely to say this are 35- to 54-year-old men and women, those most likely to have children as an added variable in these equations.
Potentially compounding these issues is slower economic growth. After a post-COVID-19 peak in 2021 and 2022, investment levels have dropped in the face of higher interest rates and aren’t expected by experts to rise significantly again until 2025. With this as a backdrop, and a recently downgraded credit rating in the news, many British Columbians are critical of the BC NDP’s focus on encouraging investment. More than two-in-five (44%) – rising to half among those with annual household incomes higher than $100,000 (52%) – say the government should focus more on this aspect of the economy.
Two-in-five said more focus is needed on business investment. With economic issues like inflation, jobs, and government spending all important to a significant number of British Columbians, the Angus Reid Institute asked residents how they feel the BC NDP has handled a key aspect of overcoming these challenges: business investment. The COVID-19 pandemic hit the province hard, and subsequent inflation and higher interest rates have evidently slowed investment after a two-year spike in 2021 and 2022. Slow economic growth is expected this year, though some predict investment will pick up again in 2025. Amid a weaker economic forecast, S&P Global downgraded the province’s credit rating from AA to AA- this spring.
The consequences of these challenges, particularly when it comes to housing, are that many British Columbians say they may leave. In 2023, for the first time in more than 10 years, B.C.’s had a negative net interprovincial migration – that is the number of people who moved to B.C. from other provinces minus those who left for elsewhere in the country. Despite this outflow, the province’s population still grew, but the exodus of British Columbians to other provinces is perhaps emblematic of the affordability challenges the province faces. A study released in Nov. 2023 showed that B.C. had the highest cost of living of any province in the country. More than one-third (36%) British Columbians say they are contemplating leaving the province because of the high cost of housing, while a majority (54%) say that is not a consideration. Those in the Lower Mainland (42%) and Interior (41%) are more likely to say they are seriously thinking of leaving the province than those in Metro Vancouver (36%) and on the Island or North Coast (22%).
