B.C. sticks with job creation plan despite job losses; NDP says plan not working

VICTORIA – B.C. Jobs Minister Pat Bell says the latest jobless numbers prove Canada is facing a volatile economic situation and the government will stick to its jobs plan, but the NDP says the plan isn’t working.

The comments came after new figures from Statistics Canada showed B.C. lost nearly 16,000 jobs in January, the second highest number of job losses in the country, behind only Ontario.

Bell says this is not the time to abandon the Liberal jobs plan because B-C’s unemployment rate last month remained at 6.3 per cent, well below the national setting of 7 per cent.

But NDP finance critic Bruce Ralston says since the jobs plan was introduced in September of 2011, B.C. has seen stagnant job numbers overall and huge losses in the private sector.

Meantime, he says the government is spending $15 million in tax money on ads telling people the jobs plan is working great.

He says the ads claim B.C. is leading the country in job creation, but that’s incorrect and in fact, B.C. is now second worst of all the provinces for job growth.