As the unemployment rate in B.C. hit a level of 6.8 per cent in May, Minister of Jobs Ravi Kahlon tried to put a positive spin on the news.
His statement about the increase in the rate acknowledged the impact of U.S. tariffs and the Iran war, but quickly switched to saying “British Columbia is staying strong in the face of uncertainty.”
No, we’re not.
Unemployment in May 2025 was 6.4 per cent. In May 2024 it was 5.6 per cent. May 2023 was five per cent.
We’ve lost a lot of jobs in the last three years.
Kahlon and the NDP government are right to note that much of this is the result of exterior forces, over which provincial premiers and cabinet ministers have little direct control.
They have control of two things – how they frame the situation, and how they respond to it.
Unfortunately, the NDP keeps trying to put a happy face on a bad situation. Each year the job numbers in B.C. gets worse, but the NDP is quick to point out that it’s still better than in the rest of Canada, that local wages are slightly higher, etc.
This does nothing to help people who are looking for work, whether that’s newly laid-off workers, or fresh graduates entering the labour force.
A vigorous response is also harder if you’re pretending the problem isn’t really that bad.
Unemployment keeps going up. Food bank use in this province keeps climbing. Fewer people working, plus more people using employment insurance, will only cause more strain on the province’s budget, which was already in pretty dire shape to begin with.
The NDP needs to make the unemployment rate a priority, and it needs to show that it’s a priority by talking about this like it’s serious. Unemployment is not a public relations problem.
Bringing down unemployment when we’re under fiscal assault from tariffs, rising gas prices, and the potential return of higher inflation will not be easy. It might require hard choices. But we don’t want to go back to the bad old days of the Great Recession, or even worse, of the early 1980s.
British Columbians can stomach some hard choices, even some belt-tightening for those who do have stable jobs, if their leaders are willing to say: This is a crisis, and we’re doing something about it.