For more than a decade, Mike Witherly of Fairview Strategy has asked British Columbians the same two questions. He shared the latest results with local officials yesterday at the Get It Done B.C. 2026 forum in Vancouver.
The July survey, run with Avatar Innovations, polled nearly 900 British Columbians online. Margin of error: 3.2 percentage points. The results were released publicly for the first time that morning.
Witherly’s main takeaway: British Columbians still hold the same values, but they are more pragmatic about how to act on them.
The grumpiness underneath
Cost of living is the top concern by a wide margin. Even when asked to look a decade ahead, the answer stays the same. Witherly notes this has not changed since the pandemic.
The numbers underneath tell more. Only 9 per cent say the province is on the right track. More than twice that number feel strongly it is not.
Witherly’s view is that satisfaction is mild, but dissatisfaction is intense. The unhappy are much more vocal than the content.
He also notes growing discontent among young men. Men aged 18 to 34 now lean more conservative than before. Some may have expected forestry jobs that are no longer available.
Cost of living means different things depending on income. For some, it is rent and groceries. For others, it is a shorter vacation. The same term covers very different realities.
Oil on water, and a number that moved
Support for building infrastructure in British Columbia has increased, even for projects that once faced strong opposition. Port facilities for oil tankers are a clear example. This is oil shipping on the coast.
About a quarter of British Columbians still oppose it. But only 9 per cent oppose it strongly. Witherly called that figure new.
Witherly links the shift to the trade disruptions of 2016 and the pandemic, when support for building increased. The explanation is straightforward: projects got built.
Trans Mountain and Coastal GasLink both faced protests, legal challenges, and years of debate. Both projects were completed, and the province moved forward.
Each completed project makes the next one more familiar. Once a pipeline is in place locally, it is no longer an abstract idea. Familiarity changes the conversation.
Green enough
Witherly runs two standard questions in most of his surveys. One asks how central natural resources are to provincial prosperity. Agreement usually lands around 70 per cent, and it’s been trending up.
The other puts a blunt statement about humanity’s damage to the planet. Agreement usually lands in the low to mid 60s.
Both numbers are real at the same time. That’s the yin and yang of British Columbia, and it hasn’t gone anywhere.
The difference now is what tips the balance. Environmental caution used to win by default. Now, focus groups show a new attitude.
When asked about changing rules or standards, a new response appears.
“We’re green enough.”
Witherly cautions that focus groups are qualitative and one phrase does not make a trend. Still, it matches the broader data.
British Columbians have looked at how the rest of the world operates. They’ve concluded their own standards are already strong. Confidence, not indifference, is driving the change.
What the revenue is actually for
The last slide asked what the province should do with resource wealth. One answer dominated everything else.
Use it to pay for the services people rely on.
That result isn’t new; voters have chosen that option before. What struck him is the impatience attached to it now.
This is where polling becomes concrete. Resource revenue pays for the MRI in the hospital, the classroom aide, the paved road, and the seniors’ housing project that has waited years.
The welder in the camp helps pay for the nurse in town. Voters understand this exchange and want to see more of it.
Stewart Muir, who hosted the session, opened by asking every elected official in the room to stand. The municipal elections are a month out. The numbers Witherly presented were aimed squarely at that audience.
The message for Victoria and Ottawa: British Columbians still care about the environment, but now they are asking what else the province is ready to build.
Ian Biana writes for the Resource Works Accelerate team and can be reached at [email protected].
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