Prince George Chamber of Commerce announces new policies passed

The Prince George Chamber of Commerce met to debate policies that support economic recovery at a provincial level with colleagues across BC last weekend.

Delegated Chamber members submitted a trio of policies this year at the BC Chamber of Commerce Annual General Meeting.

The policies include increased usage of BC wood products in BC Housing initiatives, maintaining the office of the Auditor General for Local Government, and developing a strong re-investment strategy for gateway infrastructure.

“BC was built on forestry and continues to enjoy many of the benefits that forestry continues to provide to the entire economy of BC,” said Todd Corrigall, CEO, Prince George Chamber of Commerce. “This policy document encourages Government to utilize the Clean BC framework and ensure that BC products play a significant role in our economic recovery and building programs over the long term”.

The following recommendations were made to the provincial government:

• Provide Incentives for new affordable housing developments that receive BC Government funding, and which utilize sustainably produced B.C. wood products in their engineering, construction and energy systems.
•  Consider enhancements to the Clean BC Better Buildings strategy by adding incentives for use of wood products in commercial buildings, as well as adding new incentives for use of wood
  products in new mid-rise affordable housing of 5 to 12 storeys.
• Advocate to FCM that they similarly determine a specific allocation of new housing construction capital project funding from their Green Municipal Fund for projects which utilize Canadian
  wood products
• Partner with BC Housing to use B.C. wood to build new mid-rise affordable housing of 5 to 12 storeys.
• Enhance the depreciation regime for rail infrastructure investment to promote greater investment in rail infrastructure, to support BC’s competitiveness as a trade Province, and to meet the needs of the growing national economy and trade volumes.
• Continue working with gateway industries and stakeholders to explore a policy framework, including tax measures, to incent investment in necessary capacity enhancing gateway infrastructure.
• Appoint an Auditor General for Local Government and establish an office under the AGLG which implements the recommendations from the Auditor General for Local Government Act and Office Review conducted by Kelly Daniels and published in November of 2018, including strengthening of the communications and relationship between the AGLG and other stakeholders such as the Union of British Columbia Municipalities.
• Ensure that the performance audits conducted by the AGLG’s office are structured to acknowledge and accommodate the capacity of the subject local government.

This comes as the Advocacy Committee reviewed 70 submissions to the BC Chamber of Commerce delegated officials.