Vancouver, BC - The BC Progress Board delivered its Fourth Annual Benchmarking Report "Leadership and Vision: Benchmarking for North Star 2010" to Premier Gordon Campbell today. The two volume comprehensive report includes over 80 performance indicators and a number of special topics benchmarking British Columbia's economic, innovation, education, environment, health and social performance regionally, nationally and internationally. Indicators within the report reflect final outcome data, usually from 2003.

Volume II of the Report, Internal Performance Review - Regional, benchmarks BC's urban-regional and inter-regional performance.

Overall, BC's largest urban population centres (Greater Vancouver and Victoria) outperform the province's regions on 8 of 10 comparable indicators covering the economy, innovation and education based on the most recent full year data, usually for 2003. The indicators include: employment rate (2003), taxfiler's income (2001), housing starts (2003), non-residential building permits (2003), secondary school graduation (2003), university completion (2003), science and engineers employed (2003), and net new business formation (2003). Regional BC performs better than the province's urban areas on manufacturing shipments (2002) and retail sales (2003).

"Our regional economies have generally lagged behind the province's urban areas for more than a decade, though some have performed well", stated David Black, BC Progress Board Chair and President of Victoria-based Black Press Ltd. Black highlighted a report finding that the Northeast development region posted top-ranked performance on employment and income indicators. "The impressive performance of the Northeast in recent years on measures of income and employment illustrates the tremendous potential benefits that currently untapped energy resources could have for struggling parts of the province, such as the Northwest and the Cariboo", Black commented.

This year's report includes a "primer" on BC's energy supply, focusing on both on- and off-shore oil and gas and the need to secure additional electricity supply in the near future. "British Columbia must act now to plan for its future energy needs and potential export opportunities, given long project lead times", Black noted. "BC's untapped energy resources have the potential to provide quality regional jobs, while adding substantial additional revenue to provincial coffers to help fund health, education and other social needs", Black continued.

Black also addressed two issues of broad significance to BC's regions and the wider "provincial interest" - the mountain pine beetle epidemic, and excessive commercial and industrial property tax rates in some communities. "We encourage senior orders of government to fund research and development to identify new species of lodge-pole pine that are resilient to the mountain pine beetle", stated David Black. He continued, "the provincial government should also review property taxation rates and ensure that current commercial/industrial to residential ratios are in line with prevailing norms in other jurisdictions".

Secondary school graduation and completion rates have shown steady improvement over the past few years. In 2003, BC's high school completion rate increased to 79 percent overall and 46 percent for the Aboriginal population. "Overall improvements in general population and Aboriginal high school graduation and completion rates are positive, though ongoing efforts to improve Aboriginal outcomes and to reduce regional variations in general rates should be given priority", noted Tim McEwan, Executive Director of the Progress Board. For university completion (age 25-54), 29.6% of Greater Vancouver and 24.4% of Greater Victoria's respective populations have a university degree, versus 13.3% in Regional BC. "Recent initiatives to increase post-secondary seats throughout the province, including the creation of full-fledged universities in Kelowna and Kamloops, will help increase university completion rates in BC's regions over time", McEwan noted, adding, "further focus on skilled trades training is required in all regions of the province". McEwan continued.

Performance between large urban centres (Greater Vancouver and Greater Victoria) and Regional BC is more even on 7 measures of environment, health and society included within the report. Overall, BC's large urban centres perform better on indicators of air quality, wastewater treatment, cancer mortality, and life expectancy at birth. Regional BC performs better on the incidence of low birth-weight newborns, personal and property crime, and the prevalence of low incomes.

The report compares information on Air Quality from seven major centres around the province (2003). Prince George, Kelowna and Kamloops ranked worst for air quality based on readings of annual mean concentration of PM2.5 particulate matter, while Victoria and Vancouver ranked 2nd and 3rd best, behind 1st place Campbell River. "As our regional centres experience growth, finding appropriate ways to manage air quality in confined air-sheds will become increasingly important", McEwan noted.

Overall health outcomes in key areas - cancer mortality, cardiovascular disease, and life expectancy - have exhibited a general pattern of improvement over the last ten years. "Our benchmarking shows that health outcomes have improved in all regions of the province over the past ten years", McEwan stated. "To build on this positive performance, British Columbians can help by addressing key health risks - such as obesity, smoking and inactivity - in their own lives", McEwan continued.

Personal and property crime rates dropped every year between 1994 and 2000 in Regional BC, but increased between 2001 and 2003. Overall crime rates fell by 25% in Greater Victoria, by 21.5% in Greater Vancouver, and by 10.1% in Regional BC between 1994 and 2003. "Though rates fell in all regions of the province during the past decade, crime is a significant problem for all of BC, and is not confined to large urban centres", David Black commented. "Tackling the problem requires a concerted and sustained effort from all governments," Black continued.

Black commented on urban-regional performance gaps and challenges. "Enhancing prospects in regional and urban centres depends on a continuing focus on policies to improve competitiveness, to build a highly skilled and knowledgeable workforce, along with appreciating that resource sectors are not 'sunset industries', but remain critical to BC's economic and social future", Black concluded.

The Fourth Annual Report, "Leadership and Vision: Benchmarking for North Star 2010" is available on the Progress Board's website: www.bcprogressboard.com The BC Progress Board, formed by Premier Campbell in July 2001, is an independent panel of 18 senior business and academic leaders which benchmarks BC's economic, innovation, education, environment, health and social performance. The Board also advises on ways to improve provincial performance.