The State of Northern BC

PRINCE GEORGE – The Northern Development Initiative Trust has released its annual report on the Northern BC economy. But, unlike previous years, there is another player on the landscape with significant influence on the economy: COVID-19.

NDIT says, while the pandemic has been bad for the economy, it hasn’t been as bad as in other regions.

“The primary driver behind that is our economy is up here isn’t as reliant on the service sector,” says Joel McKay, CEO of the NDITrust. “Our economy is more reliant on goods production, export, our resource industries. Whereas places in the Lower Mainland, very much more the economy is based on the service sector, tourism, those types of businesses that have been really hit hard by COVID-19.”

The report found that forestry was in dire straits well before COVID-19 with exports dropping by an average of 14% between January and May. And the outlook “is mixed.” Other natural resource projects, such as Coastal GasLink and Site C, are holding up and providing a much-needed shot in the arm for the Northern BC economy.