VANCOUVER — In 2001, the BC Progress Board established the most comprehensive set of measures available to track BC's economy, innovation, education, environment, health and society performance. Ten years later we use essentially the same set of indicators although we have made some changes as we learned more about the task given to us.

Similarly, we have learned that British Columbia's ranks on these indicators are generally slow to change but that does not mean that our province's economic and social performance is stagnant or average. Consider the performance of two crucial economic and two popular social measures over the 1990s and 2000s.

British Columbia ranked third for real GDP per person in 1990 and weak growth of two-and-a-half percent for the entire decade only cost the province one rank position. British Columbia ranked fourth in 2000 and 2009 but grew by 10.7 percent – roughly four times more than in the previous decade.

Similarly, BC only lost a single rank position as its real personal disposable per person fell by seven percent in the 1990s. It lost one more position in the 2000s but income grew by twenty percent.

Crime in BC fell at about one-third the pace seen in Canada in the 1990s and BC started and ended the decade with the worst rate in the country. The crime rate fell by one-quarter in the 2000s but only earned one rank position improvement.

One exception to this pattern, at least for the 1990s, is LICO. The proportion of individuals living below Statistics Canada's Low Income Cut-Offs (LICOs) earned BC a fifth place rank in 1990. This fell to last place as the ratio climbed by almost one-third to reach 16.4 percent in 1999. However, BC's rate fell by one-quarter in the 2000s – to a rate below the one seen in 1990. Interestingly, that accomplishment was not enough to earn a rank improvement.

Many of the twenty-six indicators we track tell similar stories to the four sketched out above in that we have had real improvement in performance with little change in rank. All of the Board's work is public and any who want to review our analysis can find the necessary information on our website or by contacting us.

The BC Progress Board has always considered the goals it set out in 2002 as "stretch objectives." BC has improved on many indicators and should continue to strive to reach these challenging goals – however, it is possible to see significant improvement without a change in rank.

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Media Contact:
Joel Emes,
Acting Executive Director, BC Progress Board
(604) 775-2126