Deetken was engaged by the B.C. Ministry of Jobs, Economic Recovery and Innovation (JERI) to provide economic modelling and benchmarking to inform B.C.’s new Economic Plan. Specifically, Deetken was tasked with developing a set of economic indicators to measure the performance of the plan over time.
To achieve this objective, Deetken collaborated with a cross-government economic modelling working group to brainstorm and prioritize metrics that correspond to key themes in the plan related to inclusive and green economic growth. We also undertook extensive independent desktop research. Where possible, we benchmarked B.C.’s historical performance to that of other provinces and the country, and forecasted future trends aligned to published work or work-in-progress of the B.C. Ministry of Finance, the Climate Action Secretariat, and the B.C. Ministry of Advanced Education and Skills Training.
We prioritized key economic indicators for tracking the performance of B.C.’s Economic Plan against the agreed-upon “pillars” of economic success -sustainability, innovation, and inclusivity – including labour productivity and greenhouse gas emissions per unit of Gross Domestic Product. Our historical baseline study also revealed key facts about B.C.’s historical performance relative to Canada and other provinces in the areas of economic inclusion and equity, economic standard of living, innovation, productivity and growth, regional economies, and the clean economy.
Our work culminated in the creation of a companion document to the Economic Plan, Measuring Our Progress, published in early 2022.
Subsequent to this work, Deetken was engaged by JERI to complete additional projects, including building a solution in Alteryx, a market-leading big-data analysis software platform, to measure the annual economic performance at a regional level of 12 priority sectors in B.C.; building a similar solution for measuring the performance of all manufacturing sectors at the 4-digit NAICS level; and an economic performance baseline of the marine building and repair/refit sector in coastal regions of B.C.
