Vancouver, BC - The BC Progress Board tabled its Fifth Annual Benchmarking Report "Comparing BC's Performance - Reaching Our Potential" today with the provincial government. Volume I of the comprehensive two volume report benchmarks British Columbia's performance against other jurisdictions nationally, internationally, and regionally on measures of the economy, innovation, education, environment, health and society. Indicators used in the report reflect the most recent final data, usually for 2004.

The Progress Board continues to report on six core targets for British Columbia's overall performance. The province's annual rate of economic growth per capita remained at 3rd place in Canada in 2004, unchanged from 2003 following data revisions by Statistics Canada. BC also stood 3rd in real personal disposable income per capita in 2004 - the Board's standard of living measure - also unchanged from last year's report. The Board's core jobs measure - the employment rate for the working age population (ages 15-64) - continued to show year-over-year improvement, ranking 5th (2004), up from 6th place in 2003, reflecting continued strong province-wide job growth. BC ranks 1st on the Progress Board's environmental quality index, 1st on the Board's new health outcomes index, and 9th on the Board's new social condition index.

"British Columbia performed well, with economic growth outpacing the national average for the third year in a row in 2004", commented David Black, Chair of the BC Progress Board and President of Victoria-based Black Press Ltd. "Our benchmarking indicates 'strong to middling' performance on fully 15 out of 16 indicators of the economy, innovation and education in this year's report", Black continued.

Looking closer at BC's economic performance, the province scored highly on two key fiscal indicators -- taxpayer supported debt (2004/05) and provincial surplus/deficit (2004/05), with both ranking 2nd among the provinces. BC also places 2nd on real average hourly wage levels (2004), 2nd for the lowest top marginal personal income tax rates (2005), and 2nd for net inter-provincial migration (2004/05). BC ranked 3rd in Canada on combined residential and non-residential business investment (2004/05). The province posts middling performance on productivity (6th, 2004) and per capita combined provincial and local tax burden (6th, 2004), while its performance on exports per capita remains weak (8th, 2004).

"The province has made very good progress on the bulk of the Progress Board's inter-provincial economic indicators, but a watchful eye is warranted with respect to BC's export performance and its at best mediocre productivity track-record", Black continued. "Enhancing BC's competitiveness through improving productivity and export-oriented economic diversification is important for long-term gains in individual standards of living", Black noted.

BC's overall innovation performance, measured by research and development expenditures relative to GDP, improved to 4th place in Canada (2002), up from 5th in 2001. BC placed 19th out of 31 OECD jurisdictions (2002) and 38th out of 61 provinces and states (2002) on the same metric. This year's report contains positive supplemental findings for BC's comparative performance on the commercialization of intellectual property from 15 post-secondary institutions in the province. Relative to the Prairies, Ontario, Quebec and Atlantic Canada in 2003, BC - with only 11 percent of sponsored research in Canada - was home to 19 percent of Canadian inventions disclosed, 20.3 percent of patents, and 24.7 percent of spin-off companies formed.

"British Columbia continues to make solid progress in its overall innovation performance as measured by expenditures on research and development", noted Tim McEwan, Executive Director of the Progress Board. "This year's finding that BC is a national leader in the commercialization of intellectual property generated by post-secondary institutions is something to celebrate and points to a key area of strength to build upon", McEwan continued.

Turning to education, BC's high school completion rate held steady at 79 percent in 2004, while standardized foundation skills testing results reveal that the vast majority of students meet or exceed provincial expectations for levels of reading comprehension, writing, and numeracy. Supplemental information in the report on access to computers in K-12 schools indicates that BC's 7th place rank (2003) matches the national average of 5 students per computer.

Among the provinces, BC is ranked 1st for the all-inclusive proportion of citizens with a post-secondary certificate, diploma, or degree, at 58.1 percent of its population (aged 15 plus). BC posts the 2nd highest number of university graduates (aged 25-54, 2004) among the provinces, and ranks 6th for population (aged 15 plus) with a trades credential. BC has the 5th highest proportion of the working age population employed in natural and applied science and related occupations (2004), down from 4th place in 2003.

"Overall, BC's K-12 and post-secondary education systems continue to perform well relative to other provinces", McEwan noted. "The decade ahead will require the system to respond to skilled worker shortages across most sectors of the economy. A continued focus on educating highly skilled personnel is critical if BC is going to strengthen its productivity performance, living standards and overall quality of life", McEwan continued.

BC continues to place 1st on the Progress Board's environmental quality index, an average of inter-provincial rankings of urban air quality (3rd, 2003), greenhouse gas emissions (3rd, 2003), and protected areas (1st 2003).

"Together with supplemental information examining air, land and water quality in BC, our reporting shows the province continues to perform very well on measures where inter-provincial comparison is possible", McEwan noted.

This year's report includes a new health outcomes index averaging provincial performance on life expectancy (BC was 1st, 2002), cancer mortality (1st, 2002), cardiovascular disease mortality (2nd, 2002), infant mortality (5th, 2002), and potential years of life lost, an indicator of premature mortality, (1st, 2002). The report also includes supplemental information on comparative provincial wait times. BC matched the Canadian average of 4 weeks on wait times for non-emergency surgeries in 2003, and performed better than the Canadian average on average wait times for specialist visits (3 weeks in BC, versus a national average of 4 weeks).

"British Columbia continues to lead the provinces in most key health outcomes, and is also an international leader when it comes to life expectancy at birth, placing behind only Japan among member nations of the OECD", McEwan noted. "BC health outcomes show a general trend of absolute improvement over the last ten years; further progress will require BC citizens to reduce health risks such as smoking and obesity, and to adopt healthy and active lifestyles", McEwan concluded.

This year's report presents a new index of social condition. BC ranks 9th in Canada on the social condition index based on an average of rankings of the province's performance on: low income incidence (or LICO, 2003, 10th); low birth-weight infants, a common measure of social condition (3rd, 2003); the reported incidence of personal and property crime (2003, 9th); reliance on income assistance (5th, 2003); and long-term unemployment (i.e. greater than 52 weeks, 10th, 2003). Supplemental North American benchmarking of low birth-weight newborns places BC 2nd (2004) among 61 provinces, US states and the District of Columbia. On the reported incidence of personal and property crime, BC placed 61st (2004) among the same jurisdictions, a clear sign that crime represents a serious social problem for the province.

This year's report also includes supplemental information from academic studies suggesting the estimated size of the underground economy from both legal and illegal activities to be between 12 and 15 percent of GDP.

The Progress Board commissioned Statistics Canada to undertake a preliminary examination of BC's higher reported rankings of low income incidence during 1997-2003. This examination found that a significant proportion is explained by lower levels of 'labour market engagement', a finding generally consistent with BC's lagging overall employment rate during the same time period.

"Though personal and property crime levels have improved in BC during the past decade, the Progress Board is concerned about our continued poor performance relative to other provinces and US states", David Black commented. "All levels of government and community leaders must come to grips with BC's persistent high crime rates, with the underground economy, and possible linkages that both of these problems have to long-term unemployment and the incidence of reported low income", Black continued. "In 2006, the Progress Board will undertake its own study of this highly complex and critically important area", Black concluded.

"The Fifth Annual Benchmarking Report, "Comparing BC's Performance - Reaching Our Potential", is available on the Progress Board's website: www.bcprogressboard.com. www.bcprogressboard.com

The BC Progress Board is an independent Panel of 18 business and academic leaders which benchmark BC's economic, innovation, education, environment, health and social condition. The Board also advises on ways to improve provincial performance.