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Your B.C. Government

Private-Sector Investment

Your B.C. Government is working to attract investment by cutting taxes and regulations, promoting trade and building partnerships to grow B.C.'s trade and technology, which in turn creates jobs and drives the provincial economy.

What your B.C. Government is doing for private-sector investment:

Initiatives:

  • The Province has launched the $90-million B.C. Renaissance Capital Fund to attract market expertise and venture capital investment to B.C. This allows innovative B.C. companies to access a portion of the $2.3 billion of capital available for investment.
  • Between 2005 and 2007, your B.C. Government provided more than $80 million in tax credits under the Employee Investment Act and Small Business Venture Capital Act.
  • Your B.C. Government has continued to focus on attracting investment by:
  • Eliminating the Corporate Capital Tax by 2010.
  • Reducing the Provincial Corporate Income Tax from 12 per cent to 11 per cent and down to 10 per cent by 2011.
  • Expanding the list of qualifying International Financial Activities eligible for an exemption from B.C. Corporate Tax – as much as a 100 per cent refund.
  • B.C. companies have received nearly $300 million in direct venture capital investment.
  • The Province has created the Innovative Clean Energy Fund to further establish B.C. as a world leader in alternative energy and power technology. Up to $25 million will be provided each year under the ICE Fund, which will showcase B.C. technologies to the world and foster solutions to B.C.'s energy challenges.
  • Your B.C. government is investing almost $8 million to support the production of liquid biofuels in British Columbia. This will result in significant reductions in greenhouse gas emissions compared with petroleum-based fuels.
  • B.C. is partnering with the federal government to fund the Western Economic Partnership Agreement. Both B.C. and Western Economic Diversification Canada will provide $25 million to support economic development projects focused on helping British Columbia organizations to research and develop clean energy and environmental technologies, accelerate investment attraction to B.C. and support the success of new products and processes. 
  • The Province has invested $10 million in 650 graduate student internships that allow these students to work with industry to find innovative solutions to ongoing challenges.  Now in its third year, MITACS ACCELERATE has helped create more than 350 internships with B.C. businesses and organizations in the life sciences, clean technology, natural resources, energy and business services. Industry provides matching funding.
  • B.C. and India are jointly funding research, development and commercialization projects in life sciences and environmental technologies.
  • The environmental assessment review process, including consultations with the public and First Nations, on the proposed Northwest Transmission Line Project along Highway 37 is underway. The proposed power line has the potential to generate or support billions of dollars in capital investment, create thousands of new jobs, open economic opportunities on a global scale in the Northwest, and get remote communities off diesel-electric power.

Outcomes:

  • The financial sector is now the fastest growing – representing $32 billion of B.C.'s GDP.
  • The value of major construction projects planned or underway in B.C. rose to $188.1 billion between April and June 2009, setting a record for the 19th time in a row. This is an increase of 11 per cent in estimated value from the same time last year. Since 2001, the number of projects has nearly tripled to 883, and their value has more than quadrupled.
  • Since 2008, the Innovative Clean Energy Fund has approved investments of over $47 million in 34 projects in communities across B.C., representing a total value of over $174 million to help develop clean and renewable energy technologies for British Columbians in areas such as solar, geothermal, tidal, wind and bioenergy.
  • Jobs in the technology sector have grown by an average of seven per cent over the past three years.
  • The technology industry now employs more than 80,000 people – more than the forestry and mining sectors combined, with an average weekly wage of $1,100 – 30 per cent higher than the average industry wage.

For more information:
Invest BC
Ministry of Small Business, Technology and Economic Development