Year-at-a-Glance Highlights

The Ministry of Small Business and Economic Development continued to make significant progress in fiscal 2003/04 towards the government's goal of creating a strong and vibrant provincial economy, within a challenging economic environment. British Columbia faced many economic challenges in 2003/04, including SARS, devastating forest fires, significant flooding and the on-going softwood lumber dispute. Despite those challenges British Columbia's economy grew faster than the national average at 2.2 per cent in 2003, which was up from 1.8 per cent in the previous year. During 2003/04, the Ministry continued to remove barriers to investment, and create the right conditions for economic growth and opportunity. The Ministry's achievements in 2003/04 include:

• Tourism Levy: in response to a request by Tourism Vancouver, introduced new provincial legislation to allow various tourism industry sectors in Vancouver to voluntarily participate in a levy program to generate marketing funds.
• Consumer Protection: changes to the Motor Dealer Act improved consumer protection by giving the new Motor Dealer Council of British Columbia responsibility for administering motor dealer legislation and regulations.
• Deregulation: exceeded government deregulation targets for 2003/04, and continued Ministry efforts to reduce the regulatory burden by rescinding obsolete regulations. In 2003/04, the province achieved over two-thirds of its final deregulation target, a net reduction of more than 113,000 regulations.
• Infrastructure: in partnership with the federal government, contributed toward 138 "green" and community infrastructure projects, with a total value of approximately $134 million, under the Canada-British Columbia Infrastructure Program.
• Convention Centre: worked with Tourism Vancouver to sign an agreement that set the stage for the Vancouver Convention Centre Expansion Project. Industry will contribute $90 million to this project.
• Resort Task Force: established a 15-member advisory group representing British Columbia's tourism sector, local government and First Nations to help the Resort Task Force identify barriers to resort development and expansion.
• Civic Government: transferred ownership of Fraser Valley Trade and Exhibition Centre to the City of Abbotsford and Pacific National Exhibition to the City of Vancouver.
• Single Business Number: introduced the Business Number Act to demonstrate government's commitment to create a competitive business climate, reduce red tape and make British Columbia a leader in electronic service delivery.
• OneStop Business Services: served 19,000 clients, up 4,000 from the previous year. Service was transitioned to the Ministry of Finance effective March 31, 2004.
• Invest B.C.: created a new website highlighting the competitive advantages and expansion opportunities for international investment and providing a one-stop shop for business location information and services.
• Small Business: worked with sector stakeholders to remove barriers to growth, including the development of strategies for maximizing 2010 business opportunities that will begin in 2004/05.
• Venture Capital: amended the Small Business Venture Capital Act to provide greater access to capital for British Columbia small businesses, resulting in 180 new registrations in 2003/04, up dramatically from 30 registrations a year earlier.
• International Financial Centre: we worked in concert with the Ministries of Finance and Provincial Revenue to develop new legislation that expands the range of businesses and activities eligible for provincial income tax refunds in order to attract new international business to British Columbia.
• Film Tax Credits: established an operating environment that enabled the sector to achieve its best year since 2000, with increased growth of 19 per cent from the previous year.
• Film Location: developed a provincial film location policy to ease access to all provincial government property for filming activity.
• Trade Barrier Removal: led the country in pressing for the removal of national and international trade and investment barriers that limit access for British Columbia's businesses, workers and investors.
• Trade and Investment Promotion: participated in trade and investment missions from key markets including the United States, Europe, Japan, India, Taiwan and China.
• Employment: developed and implemented a provincial strategy to increase the number of small business employees in the province by 21,900 to 971,900 employees.
• Motor Dealer Council: launched a new council to improve consumer protection through the transfer of responsibility for legislation and regulations.
• Leading Edge British Columbia: launched an initiative to help build the domestic technology sector, to generate awareness and to market British Columbia as a destination for technology investment.
• Regional Development: worked closely with communities to identify, promote and develop priority business opportunities.
• International Financial Centre: worked with the Ministry of Finance to expand British Columbia's status as an international financial center.
• 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games: won the rights to host the games. The games have the potential to generate up to $10.7 billion in economic activity.