The cost of abandoning comparative advantages
British Columbia has been in a gradual economic decline for 50 years. It is working people and the communities they live in that suffer the most.
People relocated to cities where lower-paying jobs failed to replace resource and manufacturing paychecks at scale. Statistics Canada’s 2025 National Graduates Survey found that 41.2% of bachelor’s degree holders were employed in jobs that did not typically require a bachelor’s degree. For international grads, the rate was 61%.
In B.C., these outcomes resulted from a deliberate shift to a broad service economy and from taking the comparative advantage of abundant natural resources for granted. Other mistakes contributed, such as mismanagement of immigration and a lack of incentives to invest in productivity.
There was an assumption that the economy was performing relatively well. The lived experience disagreed: 62% delayed at least one major purchase, only 25% were able to pay down debt, and only 32% managed to save for the future.
And now, British Columbia is heading down a similar path, with restrictions on data centres and AI infrastructure.
Tourism is welcome in rural areas as much as in the cities. But it pays less and produces less per job than forestry, mining, and energy. Imagine if we had also put as much effort into making forestry productive.
The B.C. government’s decision to have BC Hydro limit electricity supply to data centres and AI infrastructure ignores how much both rural and urban economies will depend on them, and it lacks ambition.
Global allies race ahead while B.C. stalls
Activists are arguing, with some success, that data centres are not worth the cost. They are, once again, dismissing Canada’s comparative advantage: a cold climate and ample low-emission firm power—hydro, nuclear, and some of the cleanest natural gas in the world.
Activists also ignore the economics and national interest.
Sean Speer, in an article published on thehub.ca, asserts, should Canada become the data centre capital of the world?
Speer’s thesis on the issue of data centres and compute boils down to this:
Canada’s path to economic strength and technological sovereignty lies in becoming the continent’s compute powerhouse, given the restrictions imposed by American cities and states.
Ironically, both the Trump administration and the Carney government promote data centres, as cities, states, and provinces impose restrictions.
Our allies and competitors in Europe are moving decisively in a different direction than B.C.’s, which lacks ambition.
The European Commission’s Cloud and AI Development Act sets out to triple the EU’s data centre capacity within five to seven years, speed up permitting, and improve access to energy, land and water.
The EU Directorate-General for Energy reported that data centre operators, the energy sector, and public authorities have joined forces to sustainably integrate data centres into the EU energy system—with 14 associations signing a Declaration of Intent and six companies signing a Declaration of Support. We are not keeping up.
The AI-created drawing that accompanies this article calls points to the pending closer of Canfor’s Northwood Pulp Mill in Prince George and the repurposing of a paper mill in Finland by Google in 2011. The Google Hamina Data Centre is undergoing expansion today.
We cannot claim to be prioritizing tech, life sciences, defence, professional services and advanced manufacturing while denying them the compute those sectors run on—unless we are content to rent it from someone else.
Nuclear, gas, and First Nations energy leadership
To be competitive over the next 30 to 40 years, there is clearly a role for new natural gas and nuclear generation; siting flexibility means firm power can be placed where wind and solar are strongest, making those projects viable in regions that couldn’t support them on their own. This is harder to do with large hydro dams.
Abundant natural gas and uranium are also among Canada’s comparative advantages. Canada’s engineering experience in nuclear power generation is world-leading, and technological improvements have made natural gas electricity generation here more efficient and less polluting.
Canada also has extensive experience in turbine engineering that could be extended to combined-cycle natural gas turbines, expanding into a new global advanced manufacturing market.
The Darlington New Nuclear Project is leading the way in Small Modular Reactors (SMR) deployment in urban settings. SMRs are being considered for use in rural and remote areas to supply resource projects and communities with local firm power. This is a great pairing with renewables.
First Nations have shown interest in nuclear power recently, and now it has turned into action. The Williams Treaties First Nations have taken a $700 million equity investment in the Darlington New Nuclear Project.
Indigenous representatives from B.C. travelled to Ontario to see it all first-hand.
Choosing strategy over short-term slogans
Where does that leave B.C.? Responding with ideologically charged policies may feel decisive, but it is not strategic.
Leading with rationing power on an issue as defining as data centres and AI infrastructure is a tactical response to a populist campaign against them.
Being strategic means keeping an eye on the long game—on whether the towns that lost their mills have work in them 30 years from now, and whether a young person can earn a living there.
Jim Rushton is a 46-year veteran of BC’s resource and transportation sectors, with experience in union representation, economic development, and terminal management. Reach him at [email protected].
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