From Kits Beach, the ships waiting in English Bay are a visible reminder of how British Columbia participates in the world economy.
We grow, extract and produce things the world needs. Timber, minerals, energy and food move through supply chains that begin here and extend far beyond the province. The work creates employment, export revenue, technical knowledge and private wealth.
But the most important economic question is not only what leaves British Columbia. It is what remains after it leaves.
Natural resources should provide more than immediate income. They should help finance the productive assets British Columbia can continue to own.
We often stop too early in the value chain
British Columbia has become skilled at producing valuable inputs. Too often, the later and more scalable layers of value are built somewhere else.
The raw material leaves. The equipment may be designed elsewhere. The operating software may come from a foreign vendor. The logistics platform, payment infrastructure, intellectual property and customer relationship may be owned outside the province. Even a company that begins here can leave once it needs larger pools of capital or access to its next market.
This does not mean the original economic activity lacks value. It means that BC frequently participates near the beginning of the chain while other jurisdictions accumulate the assets that compound over time.
A resource can be sold once. A strong company, a body of intellectual property, a distribution network or an advanced manufacturing capability can keep creating value across many cycles.
The lesson from the UAE is about capital conversion
British Columbia is not the United Arab Emirates. We have a different political system, public balance sheet, industrial base and relationship with natural resources. The comparison should not be stretched beyond recognition.
But the UAE demonstrates an important principle: wealth generated from a dominant resource sector can be deliberately converted into capability elsewhere.
Hydrocarbon wealth helped support infrastructure, trade and logistics, aviation, financial services, tourism, manufacturing and technology. The objective was not to deny the importance of oil. It was to use the strength of one part of the economy to reduce the country’s future dependence on it.
The International Monetary Fund reported that non-hydrocarbon activity accounted for roughly three quarters of UAE output in 2024, supported by growth across tourism, financial services, manufacturing, construction, real estate and trade. The country continues to pursue non-oil exports, digital infrastructure and industrial development as explicit national priorities.
The lesson for BC is not that government should reproduce the UAE model. The lesson is that capital allocation shapes what an economy becomes.
Resource wealth can become a bridge
The capital created by BC’s natural economy does not sit in one place. It appears as company profits, household wealth, public revenue, pension savings, Indigenous economic participation and the experience of people who have built careers inside demanding industries.
Some of that wealth already supports new businesses. Much more could become patient investment in the next layer of the provincial economy.
A forestry entrepreneur can understand industrial equipment, safety, logistics and the difficulty of selling into established operations. A mining executive may recognize the value of environmental monitoring, automation or cybersecurity earlier than a generalist investor. An agricultural operator can see where water, labour, forecasting and distribution create constraints. Their capital matters, but so does their judgment.
Resource wealth is therefore more than a pool of money. It is a source of informed investors, customers, operators and networks.
The opportunity is to turn that accumulated capability toward advanced manufacturing, industrial technology, clean technology, cybersecurity, financial infrastructure, health technology and other businesses that can grow beyond a single commodity cycle.
That does not mean every valuable local business should take venture capital. A company can strengthen the provincial economy while still being the wrong fit for a venture investment.
Ownership is the part that compounds
Economic activity and economic ownership are not the same thing.
A major project can create construction work, procurement and tax revenue while much of the long-term ownership remains elsewhere. A local startup can employ talented people while its intellectual property, strategic decisions and eventual investment returns move outside the province.
British Columbia should care about both activity and ownership.
Local ownership does not require every investor, customer or employee to be located here. Companies need international capital and markets. The point is to retain a meaningful share of the assets that BC helped create: headquarters, technical teams, intellectual property, production capability, customer relationships and equity ownership.
When those assets remain connected to the province, one success can finance the next. Founders become investors. Experienced employees become operators and mentors. Customers create opportunities for suppliers. Capital and knowledge begin to circulate rather than depart after each transaction.
The divide between resources and technology is artificial
Technology is often discussed as an alternative to the resource economy. That framing misses the strongest opportunities available to British Columbia.
Many will be built where technology meets a physical industry: sensors and software inside plants, robotics in production, energy systems, clean processing, supply-chain infrastructure, cybersecurity for connected operations and financial tools that help smaller companies trade and invest.
These companies may not resemble the conventional image of a software startup. They may require equipment, working capital, certification and patient customer adoption. They can also build durable advantages because their products become embedded in how customers operate.
We live close to the things our economy depends on. That gives BC founders access to real constraints and demanding early customers. It should also give BC investors the confidence to understand businesses that outsiders may overlook.
This is a capital-allocation choice
Diversification is sometimes treated as an outcome that arrives naturally as an economy becomes wealthier. It is more deliberate than that.
Someone must decide to invest in the unfamiliar company. An established business must become the first customer. An experienced operator must give time to a new founder. Investors must be willing to finance productive capacity rather than wait until every uncertainty has disappeared.
The discipline is the same at the company and provincial level: capital should leave something durable behind.
At the company level, that begins by asking whether capital changes the trajectory or merely extends the timeline.
For a company, that may be certification, production capability, customer adoption or a stronger distribution channel. For an economy, it is a broader base of locally connected companies, skills, infrastructure and ownership.
More than what comes out of the ground
British Columbia should not be embarrassed by its natural wealth, and it should not allow that wealth to define the limit of its ambition.
The goal is not to replace the resource economy. It is to ensure that the value created by natural resources continues working after the commodity has been sold.
That means investing resource-generated capital, experience and relationships into companies capable of creating the next layer of value. It means measuring success by what the province continues to own, not only by what it produces or exports this year.
BC already builds many of the inputs. The next task is to own more of the outcome.
