Capital is a Cow
The Great B.C. Investment Graze
Capital is like a cow. It goes where the grass is greener. You have 45 seconds to keep it grazing in B.C.
▶Your turn
Can you keep Capital in B.C.?
In the game below, you play as Capital. You have 45 seconds to find the greenest pasture in B.C., before the competition grazes it first.
How to play
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Graze the opportunities
Every pickup brings investment and jobs: $25M for an opportunity, $75M for a major project.
- !
Dodge the barriers
Red tape slows you down. A permitting delay stops you cold while the clock keeps running.
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Beat the competition
Other places want the same investment. Whatever you leave behind, they take.
The Great B.C. Investment Graze
Collect opportunity. Avoid barriers.
Send them the game. See who keeps more capital in B.C.
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1The economics
Why is capital a cow?
Capital is the money that builds things: mines, factories, ports, homes and new businesses. It comes from pension funds, companies and entrepreneurs, and it doesn't have to stay anywhere. The same dollars could go to B.C., Alberta, Texas or Australia. Like a cow, capital wanders toward the greenest pasture: the place where a project is most likely to get built, on time, and pay off.
What makes the grass greener
Investors compare places on a handful of things. Get them right and capital comes. Get them wrong and it goes somewhere else.
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Certainty
Big projects take years to build and decades to pay back. Investors need to know the rules won't change halfway through.
- Clear, stable rules
- Rules that shift mid-project
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Speed
Every year a project waits for a decision is a year it earns nothing, while the costs keep adding up.
- Timely, predictable decisions
- Open-ended reviews and delays
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Competitiveness
Capital compares. Costs, taxes and infrastructure are measured against every other place the money could go.
- Costs that stack up
- Costs that don't
2Try it
Build a greener pasture
Investors weigh many things before they commit. Move the sliders to see how conditions in B.C. shape business confidence, and whether capital stays or wanders off.
Business confidence
Steady
Capital is watching and waiting.
Illustrative only, not a forecast. Each factor counts equally here; in reality their weight varies by industry and project.
3The reality
Canada's pasture is getting thin
For a decade, less and less investment has been reaching each Canadian worker, while it has surged south of the border.
54¢of business investment for every Canadian worker, for each $1 invested per American worker (2024)
A decade earlier, Canada was at 87% of the U.S. level. Since then, investment per worker has fallen here and risen there.
Business investment per worker, 2024, inflation-adjusted Canadian dollars. Source: Fraser Institute, Comparing Business Investment per Worker in Canada and the United States, 2007–2024 (July 2026). The C.D. Howe Institute finds a similar gap: in 2024, Canadian workers got 41 cents of new machinery and equipment for every dollar U.S. workers got.
4Why it matters
What investment pays for
When a major project gets built in B.C., the benefits don't stay at the job site. They spread across the province.
Jobs and paycheques
Construction jobs to build it, long-term jobs to run it, and paycheques that get spent in communities across B.C.
Local business
Suppliers, contractors, trucking firms, restaurants and hotels near the project all gain new customers.
Tax revenue
Corporate taxes, workers' income taxes, property taxes and resource royalties all flow to governments.
And those tax dollars help pay for
- Hospitals and health care
- Schools and universities
- Roads, bridges and transit
- Parks and community services
When capital goes somewhere else, so do the jobs and the revenue behind the services British Columbians count on.
Capital has choices. Let’s keep it moooving to B.C.