Economic strategy or communications gimmick? Five months after Premier Gordon Campbell announced his “Heartlands Economic Strategy” to support the ailing Interior economy, Interior and Island residents are beginning to wonder what the premier had in mind.

The only major economic announcement made under the “Heartlands” strategy so far is the 120-megawatt Brilliant power plant expansion announced by the government, the Columbia Power Corporation and the Columbia Basin Trust in April. The expansion project will cost $204 million and will create 150 jobs, according to the government’s press release.

This project is an entirely public sector initiative financed through debt-financing and tax dollars. The Brilliant expansion is the continuation of the NDP’s successful Columbia Basin Accord to support economic and community development in the Kootenays.

The Columbia Basin Trust (CBT), financed by the province through the sale of theDownstream Benefits from the Columbia River Treaty, is controlled by a board ofKootenay residents.

Working with the province through Columbia Power (a Crown corporation created in1994), they developed a plan to expand the hydroelectric capacity of theKootenays and keep it under local and public control.

Thus, in 1996, Columbia Power and the CBT bought the Brilliant Dam from Cominco and began planning three major expansion projects: the Arrow Lakes Generating Station (at the Keenleyside Dam), the Brilliant Dam expansion and the Waneta Dam expansion. Construction on the Arrow Lakes/Keenleyside project began in 1999 and the new generating facility began producing power in early 2002.

The Liberals criticized these initiatives at the time. In the legislative debate, the Liberal spokesman stated: “The cost of dams has been questionable; these dams are questionable.”

Eight years later, the Columbia Basin Trust is a model of public ownership and community control. The Keenleyside project — in particular scorned by the Liberals in opposition — came in ahead of schedule and under budget. Now, the Liberals are left with nothing to do but praise the issue to proceed with the Brilliant upgrade.

The popularity of Columbia Power in the Kootenays is a result of its success. A10-year construction plan with employment equity and local hire provisions, the boom-and-bust cycle traditionally associated with heavy construction projects has been avoided.

And with local control enshrined in legislation, the projects cannot be a target of the privatization agenda. The Brilliant project, far from a shining example of the Heartlands strategy, is going ahead in spite of, not because of, the Liberals.

How is the government reacting on economic issues when they don’t have NDP initiatives such as the Columbia Basin Trust or the 2010 Olympics to fall back on? Consider the continuing case of the now-empty Western Star Trucks factory inKelowna.

B.C.’s largest manufacturer when the Liberals took office, Western Star, left the province in 2001, attracted by economic incentives offered by Oregon. The B.C. government did nothing to keep Western Star in B.C., wasting 20 years of efforts to build a manufacturing base in Kelowna.

Earlier this year, B.C. and Kelowna were given in golfing terms a “mulligan,” a second chance to build a thriving manufacturing plan in Kelowna.

Beaver Aircraft Canada announced plans to transform the former Western StarTruck factory into an aircraft manufacturing centre, creating up to 1,000 jobs most of them for skilled workers.

Beaver required a skilled workforce to make the operation work and asked the B.C. government to provide a training program at nearby Okanagan University College (OUC) to assist in making the project a success. The program would have cost $9 million.

The government failed to come through, wasting months of effort by local officials in Kelowna to promote the project. There would be no direct approval of training spaces at OUC. Other jurisdictions contacted Beaver to try to lure the company and the new jobs to their provinces.

In mid-June, the company accepted incentives from Alberta to locate the plant inCalgary. Advanced Education Minister Shirley Bond defended the failure to act by saying that providing training facilities at OUC was a “subsidy” to an individual business.

The empty factory is a symbol of economic failure. Western Star left just months after the government announced its massive tax cut plan for the wealthy and big business.

Beaver Airplane wanted to come to Kelowna and set up shop at Western Star. The community was onside. And a government that claimed that economic development in the Interior was its top priority delivered nothing more than lame excuses.

The Beaver episode exposes the “Heartlands” initiative as little more than a communications enterprise, slipped into the premier’s address in February in response to bad polling numbers in the Interior.

The government needs to take a lesson from the success of the Columbia BasinAccord, an initiative the Liberals once derided as “social engineering.” Rather than selling off the Interior’s resources and institutions to the highest bidder, they need a real strategy to develop the province outside of Vancouver.

And this time, they need to consult someone other than the premier’s speechwriter.