Friday July 18, 2025 | VANCOUVER, BC
by Mary P Brooke | Island Social Trends
Canada’s Minister of International Trade, Maninder Sidhu (MP for Brampton East), met today with BC Jobs and Economic Growth Minister Ravi Kahlon in Vancouver.
They posed for a photo outside the Premier’s Vancouver cabinet office in Vancouver with the Vancouver Harbour as the backdrop, and the photo was posted on X.
“BC’s ports connect us to two-thirds of the world’s population,” said Kahlon in social media this evening.
“That’s a huge opportunity to diversify our trading partners beyond the U.S. and deliver better results for BC families,” said Kahlon.
Unique time in BC’s history:
Until yesterday, Ravi Kahlon had been the Housing Minister since November 2022.
A mini cabinet shuffle was held at Government House in Victoria yesterday, during which Kahlon was shifted to being the Minister of Jobs and Economic Growth.
In his new role as Jobs and Economic Growth portfolio, Kahlon said yesterday in Victoria that “there’s a lot that’s happened in the last year”, referring to economic changes in Canada due to threats from the United States.
“We’re in a unique time when it comes to the history of this province when it comes to the challenges our country is facing right now,” said Kahlon now in his new role a Minister of Jobs and Economic Growth.
“President Trump … has launched an attack on our economy and threatened our independence, our sovereignty as a country,” said Kahlon in his opening remarks. “The people who are going to face the impacts of those tariffs are workers on both sides of the border,” he said.
Kahlon said that BC is in “a unique position” because BC has “everything we need to weather this storm and be more successful than we were before”, listing off resources, innovation and people.
He will focus on interprovincial trade and on “expanding trade infrastructure to facilitate the growth of the country”, Kahlon told media. “All the provinces are looking west. They’re looking to British Coilumbia because if they’re going to move their goods it’s going to have to come through British Columbia,” said Kahlon.
“We’re going to have to reach further across the world to build new relationships and to strength relationships that we have,” said Kahlon regarding trade diversification.
He is concerned about youth employment.
Kahlon sees AI as providing huge opportunities in the economy. “We need to ensure that our people have the skills to be able to harness the power of AI”. He says that will include training for students in schools in how to use AI and to identify the challenges. And the existing workforce needs to be retooled and reskilled,” said Kahlon.
There is no shortage of work when it comes to this industry that the Premier has asked me to take a vision of being the engine of growth for the country forward,” said Kahlon.
Kahlon said he continue to “work with her on that”, referring to now Christine Boyle carrying the housing file as Minister of Housing and Municipal Affairs.
Picked by Eby:
Ravi Kahlon is a senior MLA in the BC NDP. He was first elected in 2017 and served in the Horgan government and now under Premier David Eby.
Kahlon said during a press conference earlier this month that he feels like he had been in the housing portfolio “forever”.
Yesterday Eby mentioned somewhere in his remarks that he “needs Ravi” to essentially help lead the cabinet’s work in these challenging economic times.
Cabinet committee on the economy:
A BC cabinet committee on tariffs and the economy was announced by Premier Eby back in January, with Ravi Kahlon as the committee chair.
Kahlon effectively now serves as deputy to the premier on key economic issues in fast-changing economic times. The Deputy Premier is Attorney General Niki Sharma.
Four members of the new BC cabinet committee are long-time experienced ministers — Ravi Kahlon, Brenda Bailey, Adrian Dix, and Lana Popham.
The other six are either brand new MLAs or have been parliamentary secretaries or ministers of state prior to the 2024 election, or are currently a minister of state. Here is the cabinet committee as first appointed on January 29, 2025 (no changes to the composition have been announced since then):
- Ravi Kahlon, Minister of Housing and Municipal Affairs (chair)
- Diana Gibson, Minister of Jobs, Economic Development and Innovation
- Brenda Bailey, Minister of Finance
- Adrian Dix, Minister of Energy and Climate Solutions
- Lana Popham, Minister of Agriculture and Food
- Randene Neill, Minister of Water, Land and Resource Stewardship
- Rick Glumac, Minister of State for Trade
- Ravi Parmar, Minister of Forests
- Jagrup Brar, Minister of Mining and Critical Minerals
- Tamara Davidson, Minister of Environment and Parks
===== RELATED:
- BC cabinet shuffle as economic challenges evolve (July 17, 2025)
- Premier Eby about Trump’s tariff war: draconian, terrible, short-sighted and foolish (March 14, 2025)
- New BC legislation to strengthen quick response to US tariff economic threats (March 13, 2025)
- BC Premier: Trump’s tariff war is “intended to weaken our resolve, and it will not work” (March 6, 2025)
- BC halts importation of US-made liquor products (March 6, 2025)
- BC trade diversification underway, wage growth could be impacted (March 3, 2025)
- BC retaliatory tariffs are suspended for now but procurement shift continues (February 3, 2025)
- BC Premier David Eby on Feb 1 US tariff announcement (February 1, 2025)
- Eby appoints BC cabinet committee on economy & tariffs (January 29, 2025)
- Premier Eby continues his tough talk on US tariffs (January 28, 2025)
- First meeting of BC trade and economic security task force (January 24, 2025)
- BC Premier calls Trump tariff threat ‘bizarre’, announces BC task force (January 21, 2025)
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