Budget estimate debates for the Ministry of Advanced Education were held yesterday. I took the opportunity to ask the Minister about government’s progress towards creating the promised 2,900 additional tech-related spaces in public post-secondary institutions. This was supposed to result in 1,000 additional grads per year by 2023.

Below I reproduce the text and video of the exchange. As you will see from the response, I am  pleased that the government appears to be on track to reach this target.

Video of Exchange

Text of Exchange

A. Weaver: Thank you. I appreciate that.

The next question is with respect to the government announcements regarding the tech industry and the 2,900 additional tech-related spaces that the minister announced would be made available through public post-secondary institutions. This was supposed to result in 1,000 additional grads per year by 2023. Start-up funding was $4.4 million last year, but was expected to increase to $42 million.

I have two questions on this particular aspect. Is this plan still on track, number one? Two, how many spaces were added at B.C. post-secondary institutions last year?

Hon. M. Mark: Yes, the plan is on track. We began with 380 full-time-equivalent student spaces. We have a multi-year plan, to the member’s question. It started with an investment, as he noted, of $4.4 million to post-secondary institutions in 2017-2018. It increased to a total of $7 million in 2018-2019, and it continues to increase over the course of the new three-year fiscal plan. In 2019-2020, we plan to provide $24.9 million in funding, with further increases to come in subsequent years.

A. Weaver: Thank you to the minister for the answer. According to the CEO of the B.C. Tech Association, access to talent is the single greatest barrier to growth for B.C. tech companies and the industry as a whole. In fact, it’s got to such a state in British Columbia that there are companies acquiring other companies solely for the talent that the company actually holds.

I’m wondering whether or not government believes that the investments they’re making are adequate — what metrics are they using to determine whether or not they are adequate? — and whether or not they believe their goals are being reached.

Hon. M. Mark: I want to acknowledge the work of B.C. Tech. We’ve got the third annual tech summit coming up next week. We’ve got a huge delegation of young people that are going to come from across the province to participate in that forum.

It’s a continuation of previous work that was done by the former government. But we’re talking about three years. So when the member asks, “is this significant…?” It’s a start; 2,900 seats is a lot for this system. It’s the first lift in a decade.

We’re very, very proud of that. We also have to look at the system and their capacity — the availability of facilities, equipment and instructors. So we will continue to invest in tech spaces, and we’re going to continue to work with industry. For right now, we’re just very proud of this first step. There will be more.