Everywhere you look these days, politicians are talking about jobs.
In Washington on Monday, U.S. President Barack Obama urged Congress to pass his American Jobs Act. Prime Minister Stephen Harper has indicated a shift in his economic priorities towards job creation and protection and away from his singular focus on deficit reduction.
Provincial elections across the country this fall are being fought on the same issue. In B.C., Premier Christy Clark is expected to unveil a much-hyped jobs strategy soon that she says she's been working on for months.
Once upon a time, the plan was envisioned as the centrepiece of a Liberal election campaign this fall. But the defeat of the HST scuttled that idea. Ms. Clark will go ahead with the announcement anyway because she needs to.
The B.C. economy is on shaky ground. Unemployment jumped slightly in August to 7.5 per cent. Central 1 Credit Union recently downgraded the province's economic outlook for the next few years and suggested the province could slip back into recession. Meantime, besides blowing a $2.3-billion hole in B.C.'s finances, the defeat of the HST also killed what former premier Gordon Campbell once suggested was the "single biggest thing we can do" to improve the economy.
Against, that backdrop Ms. Clark has her work cut out for her.
The Premier gave the Liberal caucus a briefing on her plan last week, in which, according to sources, she outlined three "clusters" of the economy she intends to focus on.
They are: infrastructure industries (ports, airports, related suppliers of transportation and logistics services), knowledge industries (green technology, labour skills, innovation) and "first-dollar" industries (a term used to describe companies that enable an inflow of dollars to the province such as export industries of all kinds, advanced technology and international education among others).
How much money the Premier has to throw at her plan remains to be seen. But her cupboard would appear to be almost bare.
Finance Minister Kevin Falcon recently indicated few dollars are available for stimulus spending, thanks in part to the defeat of the HST. The government is also constrained by its promise to balance the budget within two years.
Jock Finlayson, an economist and executive vice-president of policy for the Business Council of B.C., says he doesn't believe Ms. Clark can do much to create jobs in the current world economic climate.
"I think the help she can offer is really around the margins," Mr. Finlayson said on Monday. "The macro-economic background she's facing is quite challenging. The U.S. economy is just not growing and there are indications ours is stalling a bit too. There is just not a tremendous amount that governments in Canada and B.C. can do."
Yet, Mr. Finlayson said the B.C. government does seem to be developing a new industrial strategy that focuses attention on those industries with a short-term upside. Help could include introducing changes to streamline permitting, project reviews, environmental assessments and First Nations consultations to spur investment in land-based industries.
The government can also help the jobs picture by moving ahead with major infrastructure projects (which it is doing) and by creating incentives for enterprises to hire new workers.
But Mr. Finlayson also pointed out that most of B.C.'s 2.3-million jobs have nothing to do with government policy. The biggest contribution governments often make to job creation is establishing a positive investment climate that fosters business confidence.
"But there is nothing that is going to create jobs overnight," Mr. Finlayson said. "The Premier is facing a tough test."
She is. Her jobs plan is the most important policy initiative that she will have introduced since becoming Premier in February. She has a lot riding on it.
Her growing legion of critics has been emboldened by the lack of substance the Premier has exhibited to this point. She has been labelled Premier Photo-op for mostly showing up at events to have her picture taken while uttering little of importance. Even members of her caucus have been mumbling about their boss's inability to exhibit any gravitas.
This will be her first big chance.
Ms. Clark has also said the biggest difference between her party and the NDP is the ability to manage the economy. Well, we're about to see what plans the Premier has to do that in a global marketplace that appears to be sailing into rough seas again.
She could be in for quite a bumpy ride.