B.C.’s NDP, Greens a concern to business leaders

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 Green-NDP 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 also 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 said 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.

“Trans Mountain has followed every process and met every test put before us,” said Anderson.

“With financing in place and a final investment decision, we are starting to award significant contracts and are moving ahead with the benefit agreements we have in place with aboriginal and local communities.”

On Tuesday, the NDP and Greens formalized their alliance in a fouryear agreement that commits to raising the 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.

Richard Truscott, vice-president of Alberta and B.C. for the Canadian Federation of Independent Business, said 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,” said Truscott.

“It’s really the piling-on effect, it’s not just the one policy that concerns us. It’s the buildup of everything they’re proposing to do.”

The agreement with the NDP and Greens also calls for the referral of the Site C hydro dam project to the B.C. Utilities Commission to determine economic viability, which Raymond James analyst Frederic Bastien noted could put major contracts with construction and services providers at risk.

“The formation of a Green-NDP coalition in B.C. could put future large-scale construction projects in the province at risk and lead to an overall state of uncertainty that would not be good for companies with exposure to the region,” said Bastien.

Tim McMillan, head of the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers, said any increase in costs on his members could threaten future investment.

“To attract investment in any business, and certainly in the natural gas and oil industry, we have to be competitive,” said McMillan.

B.C. NDP leader John Horgan said in announcing the agreement with the Greens that the policies will make life more affordable and build a more sustainable economy.

Liberal Premier Christy Clark has said she will recall the provincial legislature in June when she expects a confidence vote will result in the defeat of her government.

The Liberals won 43 seats in the May 9 election, one shy of a majority, but the formal, four-year agreement between the Greens and NDP would give them 44 seats, handing them a one-seat majority.