Finance Minister Mike de Jong says British Columbia's year-old Jobs Plan is doing what it was supposed to do - create jobs and attract investment.
De Jong says B.C. is leading Canada in job growth, having created 51,700 jobs from August of last year to August 2012, while project investment has topped $80 billion.
But economists' endorsements of B.C.'s economic prospects are not as robust as the word from de Jong and the Liberal government.
Central 1 Credit Union economist Bryan Yu says job-creation numbers rebounded in August after a decline in July, but, overall, the provincial economy appears to be slowing down due to declines in the U.S., Europe and China.
RBC, meanwhile, says a federal shipbuilding contract and modernization at Rio Tinto' smelter in Kitimat will stimulate job and economic growth next year, but sluggish trade performance could also work against that trend.
Opposition New Democrat finance critic Bruce Ralston contends the Liberals are backdating the job statistics by an extra month to August 2011, boosting the figure by almost 28,000 jobs.
