Greg D’Avignon, president of the business council, said it asked businesses, post-secondary institutions, First Nations representatives and a wide cross-section of economic leaders to come up with ideas that would strengthen job creation and economic growth in the short and medium term.
D’Avignon said the business sector has a good relationship with the NDP government and is pleased with the province’s public health response to COVID-19. The report is intended to give government bold ideas to consider as it seeks to recover the seven to eight per cent drop in gross domestic product this year and tackle an unemployment rate of more than 13 per cent, he said.
The council’s report called for government to use the two year PST cut period to investigate a new value-added tax system — not a return to the much-maligned harmonized sales tax, but a made-in-B.C. consumption tax that more broadly captures things like modern digital purchases, while providing B.C.-controlled exemptions for low-income earners.Article content continued