B.C.’s economy is unlikely to be hit too badly by the increasingly sour relationship Canada has with the Indian government. The deterioration of relations is, however, an emotional gut-punch for many in the province’s Indo-Canadian community. Some B.C. business owners rely on trade with India, with their companies exporting products such as lumber and other products to resell. …B.C.-origin exports to India totalled $1.406 billion in 2023, down 10.6% from the year before. The Canadian and Indian governments for more than a decade had been negotiating a free-trade agreement to help both economies. …“We were getting nowhere on the free-trade agreement,” Sundher Group CEO Tom Sundher said. …Sundher’s Surrey-based company sells softwood lumber to Indian customers for furniture and frames for windows and doors and also acts as an agent in helping Weyerhaeuser. None of Sundher’s clients have changed their orders because of diplomatic tensions, he stressed.

Election campaign promises and surging debt could further weaken BC’s economy. That’s according to business groups urging provincial party leaders to prioritize the state of an economy that’s lagging behind as various sectors face deteriorating performance and job losses. …“Given parliamentary conventions, including the need for a Speaker [of the House], greater collaboration may be required to ensure the effective operation of the legislature.” …“B.C. has seen effectively no growth in private sector employment between 2019 and 2023,” read the letter. “This is unprecedented and unsustainable.” …Other signatories to the letter include the Mining Association of BC… and the BC Council of Forest Industries. ….The letter also took aim at the provincial budget, the most recent of which is projecting a $7.9-billion operating deficit for 2024-25 – the largest in B.C. history. …The business groups are asking the next government to prioritize economic health.

See the original letter on the BC Chamber of Commerce site: Business Association Letter to Leaders

Jonathan Blacker & Greg Petersen

PRINCE GEORGE, BC — Last year, Prince George Pulp and Paper, shut its pulp machines down permanently. To keep its last paper machine running, a small silver pipe held aloft by scaffolding appeared, linking it like an umbilical cord with its next-door twin. Both mills used to turn wood chips into a slurry of pulp and chemicals, but only the older of the two made paper. …Greg Petersen became president of Public and Private Workers of Canada Local 9 — the Prince George arm of one of the biggest forestry unions in the province. Jonathan Blacker, Local 603 president for Unifor, another forestry union in B.C., has sat in Petersen’s office. B.C.’s forest unions have historically tended to feud. But Blacker and Petersen wave this off as someone else’s battle. …And anyway, uncommon times have led to new alliances. …This sudden collapse wasn’t inevitable, Petersen and Blacker say.