Business leaders already fretting over NDP-Greens partnership

CALGARY — Some business leaders in Canada expressed concerns Wednesday that the fallout from British Columbia’s election is discouraging the private sector from investing in the province.

Promises by B.C.’s NDP and Greens to hike the minimum wage and carbon tax could further jangle investor nerves after both parties also committed to immediately stopping the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion project.

“The election outcome, and the vow of the GreenNDP alliance to obstruct that pipeline, sends a very worrying message to investors about Canada as a predictable, reliable place to invest,” said Gary Leach, president of the Explorers and Producers Association of Canada.

He said the anti-pipeline resolution affects not only the oil and gas sector, but the overall investment climate.

“It’s a destabilizing event for investor confidence in Canada generally, and we’ve been struggling with that.”

Kinder Morgan Canada president Ian Anderson, however, said in a statement Wednesday that the company continues to move forward with the project — despite comments from the B.C. Greens and NDP, and is awarding major contracts ahead of the expected September start date.

On Tuesday, the NDP and Greens formalized their alliance in a four-year agreement that commits to raising minimum wage to at least $15, increasing the province’s $30 carbon tax by $5 per tonne annually beginning next April, and launching a review of labour laws.

The agreement also calls for the referral of the Site C hydro dam project to the B.C. Utilities Commission to determine economic viability.

Richard Truscott, vice-president of Alberta and B.C. for the Canadian Federation of Independent Business, says while the parties have made some good proposals, several will be a burden to business.

“When governments seem to go out of their way to making operating a small business less affordable and more challenging, that is certainly not good news,” Truscott said. “It’s not just the one policy that concerns us. It’s the build up of everything they’re proposing to do.”