Premier Christy ClarkDARRYL DYCK/The Canadian Press
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When it comes to considering issues most in need of being addressed, politicians in Canada often have a short-term horizon. But those playing any type of leadership role in the country are also keenly aware of the big questions facing their jurisdictions in the longer term.
That group certainly includes B.C. Premier Christy Clark.
Ms. Clark was asked recently by The Globe and Mail to identify the top concerns facing British Columbia over the next five to 10 years. She identified a number of areas she believes are going to be a top priority for whichever government is running the province in the years ahead.
"Capturing the LNG (liquefied natural gas) opportunity," said Ms. Clark, naming her first one. "There are lots of elements and decisions required to get it right. If we miss out on this, the investment will go to projects somewhere else and we'll never catch up."
Ms. Clark believes LNG's potential in the province is every bit as big as oil's has been to Alberta. But there is a world-wide rush on to exploit the resource and B.C. is in a race with countries like Australia to get product to energy-thirsty markets in Asia as quickly as possible, deriving billions in royalties in the process.
"I'd say immigration is another," said the premier. "We have two thirds of the people we need to fill the expected million jobs over the next decade. That number depends, of course, on current economic growth continuing. How will we find the people to fill the jobs without smarter immigration policies?"
And the province will be looking for not just any new arrival to the province, but one with the skills necessary to fill the many jobs that a productive resource industry creates and for which there is a dire shortage of qualified workers at the present time.
"And that leads to education," said Ms. Clark. "We also need to train people up for the jobs that we know are coming, the trades especially. That will be challenging. Even harder though will be training people up for the jobs that we don't know will exist yet. Technology is transforming our economy so fast that we have to train people for jobs that we don't and can't predict will exist."
Health care is another area on the quandary-list of most provincial leaders in Canada.
"It eats up almost 50 per cent of all program spending," said the premier. "We have the second lowest cost per capita and the best outcomes in B.C. but we can't keep finding efficiencies. Canadians will have to do it differently if we want to keep a public system."
Sure technology will continue to evolve and productivity in the health care system will go up in some areas as a result. But Ms. Clark is right, it will only go so far towards limiting spending growth in this sector. Something will have to give if governments are going to restrict health care from eating up more and more of the revenue pie. It may take a radical new approach to looking after ourselves – and being treated for ailments – that becomes the answer to stifling escalating expenditures.
Finally, the premier identified "fiscal balance" as another topic that will be on the B.C. government's radar in the years to come.
"It will be a heavy burden to say no – a lot – over the next few years," said Ms. Clark. "But the rest of North America is in a fiscal mess and we have distinguished ourselves as a good place to invest. We have a triple A credit rating, low debt to GDP ratio, etcetera. This is the stuff that matters to investors and without investment in our economy it will start to shrink like everyone else's."
Despite the complexity of many of these issues, Ms. Clark would love to be the premier whose task it is to solve them. We'll know after the general election on May 14 if British Columbians feel she is up to the job.
Gary Mason is a columnist in The Globe's Vancouver bureau.
Gary Mason