BC PULSE – One in three ‘seriously’ consider leaving the province

Plurality, including half with higher incomes, say BC NDP must increase focus on business investment

By ANGUS REID INSTITUTE

June 10, 2024 – British Columbia is a famously beautiful place to live, but a rising cost of living including unaffordable housing may be enough to send some residents searching for other pastures, even if they’re not quite as green.

New data from the non-profit Angus Reid Institute finds residents across the province, indeed, at least half in every region, saying that the BC NDP is not focusing enough on addressing their own housing needs.

This is an issue that has been seemingly intractable for two decades, and though new housing supply has been a significant focus in recent years, and B.C. now leads the nation in housing starts per capita, residents continue to face evident challenges.

The group most likely to say this are 35- to 54-year-old men and women, those most likely to have children as an added variable in these equations.

Potentially compounding these issues is slower economic growth. After a post-COVID-19 peak in 2021 and 2022, investment levels have dropped in the face of higher interest rates and aren’t expected by experts to rise significantly again until 2025.

With this as a backdrop, and a recently downgraded credit rating in the news, many British Columbians are critical of the BC NDP’s focus on encouraging investment. More than two-in-five (44%) – rising to half among those with annual household incomes higher than $100,000 (52%) – say the government should focus more on this aspect of the economy.

The consequences of these challenges, particularly when it comes to housing, are that many British Columbians say they may leave. In 2023, the province lost 8,000 more residents to other provinces than it gained, an inter-provincial net loss not seen in B.C. since 2012.

Further, more than one-in-three (36%) say departing B.C. is something they’re giving serious consideration to because of housing affordability. Half of those younger than 35, both men and women, say this is the case for them, personally.

Link to the poll here: www.angusreid.org/