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 II of the comprehensive two volume report benchmarks British Columbia's performance regionally (urban versus rural) and inter-regionally. This year, findings for the Abbotsford Census Metropolitan Area (CMA) are available for inclusion for the first time, in addition to Vancouver CMA, Victoria CMA and Regional BC agglomerations. Indicators within Volume II reflect final outcome data, usually for 2004. The report also provides further inter-regional benchmarking by Development Region and Health Authority.

Vancouver CMA continues to outperform Regional BC on 8 of 10 comparable indicators covering economy, innovation, and education, unchanged since last year's report. The indicators include: employment rate (2004), taxfiler's employment income (2003), housing starts (2004), non-residential building permits (2004), secondary school graduates (2004), university completion (2004), scientists and engineers employed (2004), and net new business formation (2004). Regional BC performed better than Vancouver CMA on manufacturing shipments (2004), and retail sales (2004).

"Regional BC has generally lagged behind the province's urban areas since we began our benchmarking in 2001", noted David Black, BC Progress Board Chair and President of Victoria-based Black Press Ltd. "Though absolute levels lag, employment growth, housing starts and net new business formation grew above levels for Vancouver CMA in percentage terms", Black continued. "Trends in these 'bellwether' economic indicators point to improving regional economic performance", Black noted.

This year's report contains a special topic report on the mountain pine beetle epidemic, a major economic and social challenge for British Columbia. "The Progress Board sees the mountain pine beetle epidemic as a major economic challenge for the province during the coming decade", Black stated. "Now is the time for all orders of government and community interests to begin planning strategies to mitigate against a probable economic slowdown once the majority of beetle killed wood is harvested", Black continued. "Of considerable concern is the possibility of provincial revenue declines and employment losses in the next decade".

BC's overall secondary school completion rate held steady at 79% in 2004/05, ranging from a high of 93% in Richmond school district to a low of 59% in Vancouver Island West. Meanwhile, for university completion (ages 25-54), Vancouver CMA's rate of 29.0% was above Victoria CMA (23.3%), Abbotsford CMA (12.2%), and Regional BC at 12.9%. "Efforts in recent years to add post-secondary capacity in the province's regions, together with greater on-line learning opportunities through initiatives such as BC Campus should improve regional university completion rates over time", noted Tim McEwan, Executive Director of the Progress Board. "Skilled worker shortages in many regions of the province also present a challenge for employers, education institutions and policy makers", McEwan continued.

This year's report also examines Aboriginal employment, income, and education trends. Among the findings:

• For the population aged 15-64, the non-Aboriginal population registered an employment rate of 71.5%, while the Aboriginal population had a rate of 58.0% or 13.5 percentage points lower in 2004;



• The non-Aboriginal unemployment rate was 6.6 %, versus 17.3% for the Aboriginal population in 2004. Meanwhile, the average hourly wage for the non-Aboriginal population was $19.15, or $2.13 higher than the average for the Aboriginal population; and,



• In 2003/04 the Aboriginal secondary school completion rate was 47% versus 82% for the non-Aboriginal population in British Columbia.

"The Progress Board encourages all orders of government to continue work underway to improve Aboriginal employment, income and education gaps over time", McEwan stated.

On measures of environment, health and society, Vancouver CMA outperforms Regional BC on 5 of 8 measures including: air quality (2004), cancer mortality (2004), life expectancy at birth (2004), employment insurance recipients (2004), and income assistance (2004). Regional BC performs better on 3 indicators - low birth weight newborns (2004), personal and property crime (2004), and the incidence of low income (2003).

The report examines air quality in five communities around the province. Victoria had the lowest concentration of particulate matter in 2004, followed by Kamloops, Vancouver and Kelowna, while Prince George had the highest concentration of the communities examined. "Monitoring air quality in larger communities and confined air sheds is increasingly important as the province experiences better than national average economic growth", McEwan stated.

Turning to health outcomes:

• Overall life expectancy at birth is the same or higher in all regions of the province on a year-over-year basis in 2004, while there was absolute improvement in all regions between 1995 and 2004;



• Cardiovascular disease mortality decreased in the Interior, Vancouver Coastal, Vancouver Island and Northern Health Authorities between 2003 and 2004, while there was a small increase in the Fraser Health Authority; and,



• Cancer mortality rates increased in the Interior, Vancouver Coastal, and Vancouver Island Health Authorities between 2003 and 2004, while there were declines in the Northern and Fraser Health Authorities.

"Despite some year-to-year fluctuations, the general trend is one of improving health outcomes across the province during the last ten years", McEwan noted. "The one exception is the incidence of low birth weight newborns which showed a slight increase over the last ten years", McEwan commented, adding, "it is important to remember that BC ranks 2nd best among the 61 provinces and US states on this indicator".

BC's personal and property crime rate showed improvement between 2003 and 2004 in Abbotsford CMA, Vancouver CMA, and Regional BC, while there was a small increase in Victoria CMA. Between 1995 and 2004, crime rates fell by 26.1% in Vancouver CMA, 22.2% in Victoria CMA, and by 13.1% in Regional BC, while they increased by 6.7% in Abbotsford CMA. "Though crime rates have fallen during the last ten years, BC still has unacceptably high levels relative to other North American jurisdictions", David Black noted. "In 2006, the Progress Board intends to undertake a study of this 'all BC' problem", 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.