Ravi Kahlon, Minister of Jobs and Economic Growth for B.C., said the new strategy is called ‘Look West’ as a way of urging Ottawa to ‘look beyond the Rockies.’DARRYL DYCK/The Canadian Press
British Columbia released a new industrial strategy Monday, reflecting a concerted effort by the province to align itself with the federal government’s shifting economic priorities around defence and national security.
Ravi Kahlon, Minister of Jobs and Economic Growth for B.C., said the strategy is the province’s way of ensuring it gets its fair share of the $6.6-billion Ottawa has allocated over five years to its forthcoming national defence industrial strategy.
“Our strategy is called Look West because we feel we have to continue to urge the federal government to look beyond the Rockies. Often, when they say Western Canada, they don’t mention B.C. It seems to stop at Alberta,” he said in an interview.
Energy, life sciences, technology, lumber and agriculture all garner a mention in the strategy, with the throughline being how their respective growth will contribute to the federal government’s commitment to spend 5 per cent of GDP on defence by 2035.
“It really focuses heavily around sectors that align, quite frankly, with the federal government’s national defence or NATO commitment spending,” Mr. Kahlon said.
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In its maritime sector, B.C. is keeping a close eye on Ottawa’s decision to procure 12 new submarines from either Germany or South Korea. Mr. Kahlon said B.C. has made it clear to the federal government that it wants a piece of the maintenance and repair contracts that will come with that purchase. He’d also like to see B.C.’s shipyards be the site of production for a new fleet of continental defence corvettes Ottawa is considering procuring.
The strategy outlines the province’s goal to secure 35 per cent of federal defence-vessel contracts by 2035, working with strategic partners such as North Vancouver-based Seaspan. “We believe that’s a proportionate amount for what British Columbia should be getting, if they’re trying to do this as a level playing ground across the country,” Mr. Kahlon said.
In aerospace, B.C. is working to position itself beside sectoral leaders Quebec and Ontario with its industry clusters in the Fraser Valley, Kelowna and Kamloops. This includes investing $2.73-million into COTA Aviation, a Vancouver Island-based defence company with experience working with military equipment giants General Dynamics and Lockheed Martin.
Part of the province’s plans to execute this growth includes doubling its spending on trades training to $214-million annually by 2028. Mr. Kahlon said the province is prepared to use its Provincial Nominee Program, designed to help skilled, in-demand workers immigrate to B.C., to attract talent from the United States.
This program could prove particularly useful for B.C.’s flourishing health and life sciences sector, which has received provincial support in recent years. Mr. Kahlon made a barbed pitch for B.C. as a better investment destination than the U.S., given uncertainty this year under the watch of Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. “The bigger message that we’ve been sharing with industry is, ‘Why would you want to make an investment in any jurisdiction that doesn’t believe in science?’” Mr. Kahlon said.
The provincial government is working on a proposal with the federal government tied to the country’s defence strategy that would see hundreds of millions of dollars committed over several years to the sector, Mr. Kahlon said. The goal of the strategy is to double life sciences employment in B.C. to 40,000 people and increase its economic impact by 75 per cent by 2031.
This would contribute to B.C.’s global leadership in the field of lipid nanoparticles – biological delivery agents that proved critical in the administration of mRNA vaccines during the COVID-19 pandemic. The goal, in the words of the province’s strategy, is to “make B.C. a leader in biodefence” by building a hub around the technology.
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The plan prioritizes artificial intelligence as well, noting the province is already home to 600 AI companies and it’s aiming to double tech-sector employment to 400,000 by 2035.
Supporting AI development requires data centres, and there is a push around the world to build more of them. But the B.C. government recently took steps to rein in data centre development because of the amount of electricity these facilities can require and will instead prioritize electricity for natural resource projects.
On Monday, Mr. Kahlon pushed back on the notion that the province is closing the door to new data centres. “I’ve read some headlines that suggested that we weren’t making power available for AI infrastructure. Well, that’s simply not correct,” he said.
The province will open up bidding for data centres next year and has allotted a total of 400 megawatts of electricity over two years. Mr. Kahlon said the province will prioritize projects that align with national security and defence goals “as opposed to a free-for-all like some jurisdictions.”