Above Average Performance in Recession and Progress on Social Condition among
Highlights
VANCOUVER, Dec. 16 /CNW/ - The British Columbia Progress Board released its tenth annual benchmark report today. Due to lags in reporting, economic indicators reflect performance during the recession and many indicators turned negative in 2009. BC's recent performance on the economic indicators was essentially tied with, or better than, average Canadian performance.
"Out of eleven indicators, BC beat the Canadian average on five and tied it on four others," noted Gerry Martin, Progress Board Chair.
The two exceptions were real personal disposable income per capita and the employment rate. After average annual growth of more than $500 a year for nine years, real personal disposable income fell by less than $500 in 2009. Similarly, BC's employment rate did better than average between 2000 and 2008 but suffered a large decline in 2009. Martin added that "publicly available forecasts show BC with solid gains in personal income and above average growth in employment and real GDP in 2010 and 2011."
British Columbia maintained its top ranks on the environment and health indexes and ranked sixth on the social condition index for 2008, reflecting uneven but steady improvement from its worst performance on record in 2002.
The 2008 index shows significant improvement since 2002 in four of the five indicators and rank improvements on three. Long-term unemployment decreased by almost sixty percent which moved BC's rank from last to fifth. The proportion of the population relying on income assistance declined by almost half, changing BC's rank from a middling sixth to a strong second.
As noted by Joel Emes, Acting Executive Director, "crime rates fell by one-third resulting in a rank improvement from ninth to eighth while the gap between BC and seventh-place Alberta dropped from 29 to five percent." Emes added, "Similarly, Low Income Cut-Off (LICO) rates fell by almost thirty percent and although BC still ranks last, the gap between it and ninth-ranked Quebec fell from 30 to two percent."
British Columbia has weathered the recession and the slow recovery well, maintained its top ranks on the environment and health indexes and made progress on the social condition index. The Board remains optimistic about continued improvement in BC's performance.
The BC Progress Board, established by Premier Campbell in 2001, tracks changes in the economic performance and social wellbeing of British Columbia through review of the most comprehensive data on the province's economy, innovation, education, environment, health and societal performance.
The Progress Board issues its Benchmark Report annually in December. A Summary report is printed and distributed and the full report is available at: http://www.bcprogressboard.com/.
For further information: For further information:
Media Contact:
Joel Emes
Acting Executive Director, BC Progress Board
604-775-2126
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