This edition comes with a late change. On Monday, September 21, Premier David Eby announced a snap provincial election, to be held Saturday, October 24 — one week after the province’s municipal elections on October 17. The announcement prompted the postponement of several Chamber events originally planned for the weeks ahead; those events will return, most likely in the first quarter of 2027, once a new government has formed.
The rest of September's story still stands. The month delivered a genuine bit of good news for Okanagan businesses — alongside fresh pressure from other directions. The Province's decision to pause the PST expansion to professional services is real relief for hundreds of our members, arriving the same month that federal counter-tariffs took effect and gas prices climbed over the $2-a-litre mark. Add in the return to school, an unmoved Bank of Canada policy rate, and a labour market that has yet to find its footing, and the picture heading into fall is a mixed one: real wins alongside pressures that show no sign of easing.
There are several other stories in motion this month as well. Let's get into it.
PST EXPANSION PAUSED — A WIN WORTH NOTING
On Friday, September 18, Premier David Eby told delegates at the Union of BC Municipalities convention that the Province is pausing the planned October 1 expansion of the Provincial Sales Tax to professional services, including accounting and bookkeeping, architecture, engineering and geoscience, non-residential real estate, and security and private investigation services. The pause takes effect through a temporary regulation and will remain in place, in the government's words, until the uncertainty created by the ongoing Canada-U.S. trade war has passed. The Province estimates the delay will save people, businesses, and local governments approximately $260 million in the 2026–27 fiscal year.
This is partly a result of sustained advocacy from the Kelowna Chamber and chambers across the province, as well as other business organizations. As we noted last month, the Select Standing Committee on Finance and Government Services had recommended repealing the expansion outright as part of its Budget 2027 report, and we raised the same concern directly with visiting NDP ministers and in our own submission to the committee. Finance Minister Josie Osborne said the pause is meant to give businesses and communities “more flexibility… to invest, adapt and grow” during an unsettled period. We'll keep members updated as the regulation is finalized — noting the pause turned out to be a pre-election strategy — and will continue pressing for a permanent exemption
A pause, not a repeal — but for the hundreds of professional-services members who raised the alarm, it's relief they can bank on for now.
VINTAGE REPLACEMENT PROGRAM — ANOTHER WIN FOR BC WINE
Also this month, the Province confirmed a targeted change to the Vintage Replacement Program, removing BC VQA wine and 100% BC wine from the Olympic Average Sales Cap. The cap was meant to keep the program temporary while BC vineyards recover from the devastating January 2024 freeze, but it was also constraining wineries' ability to grow sales of 100% BC wine — an unintended consequence that discouraged some wineries from committing to purchase additional BC grapes. Recent industry analysis found participating wineries produced only about 52% of normal volume in 2024, and 58% said the cap could lead them to reduce future BC grape purchases by roughly 1,163 tonnes.
This is a win we're proud to have helped deliver. The Kelowna Chamber and the Okanagan Business Advocacy Council raised this issue directly with government as part of our ongoing advocacy work in the Okanagan, and the change reflects that advocacy. Wineries with outstanding LDB invoices tied to the cap should connect directly with the LDB, as the change may affect individual calculations; further implementation details are expected in the months ahead.
Wineries need confidence they can sell the wine they make before committing to buy more BC grapes — removing BC wine from the cap restores that confidence.
TARIFF RECIPROCITY — RELIEF FOR SOME, PRESSURE FOR OTHERS
Effective September 8, Canada's counter-tariffs on roughly $27.6 billion in U.S. goods took hold, matching new U.S. Section 338 tariffs dollar-for-dollar with duties of 15, 25, and 50% concentrated in steel and aluminum, dairy, appliances, agricultural equipment, pulp and paper, and electronics. The impact locally is uneven: members who import affected inputs — packaging materials, agricultural equipment, certain electronics and appliances — are absorbing real cost increases, while many other businesses are largely unaffected.
For members feeling the pinch, federal support has expanded alongside the tariffs. Ottawa increased funding for the Regional Tariff Response Initiative by $1.5 billion in September, raising the maximum non-repayable contribution from $1 million to $3 million and making up to $2 million in liquidity support available to SMEs with demonstrated need. Tariff-exposed businesses may also be eligible for loans of $250,000 to $5 million, with interest-only payments available for up to 36 months. We'd encourage any member sourcing inputs from the U.S. to review whether these programs apply to them.
GAS PRICES CLIMB OVER $2 A LITRE
Prices at the pump in Kelowna crept up again this month, now registering ten cents over $2 a litre. For a region where most goods and many customers arrive by road, that's more than a household cost — it's an input cost, feeding into freight, delivery, and service pricing across the board. It's also another factor keeping headline inflation elevated even as core price pressures stay closer to target, a dynamic we'll be watching as the Bank of Canada weighs its next move.
THE SEPTEMBER SQUEEZE: WHAT FAMILIES AND BUSINESSES ARE FEELING
As families settle back into the school routine and students return to UBC Okanagan and Okanagan College, the economic backdrop is tighter than it was in the spring. The Bank of Canada held its policy rate at 2.25% on September 2 — a seventh consecutive hold — but with inflation running at 3% in July, some economists are now flagging the possibility of a rate increase later this year rather than the cut many had expected. Either way, households shouldn't assume the current pause is the last word.
The labour market offers little additional comfort. National job vacancies have fallen to a decade low, and BC's unemployment rate has stayed elevated through much of 2026, with earlier job losses concentrated in construction, transportation, and retail trade. Locally, the numbers are worse still: Metro Kelowna's jobless rate hit 9.3% in July, the highest of any metropolitan area in Canada for a third straight month and its fifth consecutive monthly increase. Housing activity is described by the Bank of Canada as “stabilizing,” but stabilizing is not the same as affordable. With less discretionary income to go around, member businesses across retail, hospitality, and services should plan for a cautious fall spending season.
None of this is a crisis on its own — but taken together, it's a reminder that the affordability squeeze on our members and their customers hasn't gone away.
OBAC WRITES TO THE PROVINCE ON BC WINE'S U.S. MARKET ACCESS
On September 14, the Okanagan Business Advocacy Council — representing the Kelowna, Greater Westside, Greater Vernon, and Penticton & Wine Country Chambers, along with the Peachland Chamber of Commerce — wrote to Premier Eby, Minister of Agriculture and Food Lana Popham, and BCLDB Interim CEO Erin McEwan, urging action to strengthen domestic market access for BC wine following the United States' decision to prohibit imports of certain Canadian alcoholic beverages.
The letter asks the Province and BCLDB to launch an enhanced BC wine strategy — increased shelf space, merchandising, and promotion, particularly where U.S. products have been removed — and calls on Premier Eby to press fellow premiers for a national direct-to-consumer framework, so BC wineries can sell and ship directly to consumers across Canada without punitive provincial markups or duplicative red tape. The letter also notes the wine industry's exposure to wildfires, extreme weather, and rising costs in recent years, arguing that the loss of a major export market compounds pressures the industry is already carrying.
If Canadian products are facing new barriers at an international border, Canadian businesses should not simultaneously face unnecessary barriers at provincial borders.
WATER TASK FORCE
ELECTIONS — MARK YOUR CALENDAR
DATES OF NOTE
- Municipal Elections: Saturday, October 17
- Provincial Elections: Saturday, October 24
- Kelowna Chamber hosts Canada's Chief Trade Commissioner Sara Wilshaw: Tuesday, November 10, all-morning workshop and panel discussions on trade diversification, Innovation Centre, Kelowna
- Canadian Chamber of Commerce National Conference & Policy Forum: October 27–29, Empress Hotel, Victoria https://chamber.ca/events/agm-convention/
- Kelowna Chamber Policy Development Forum: Wednesday, November 25, 7:30–10:00 a.m., Sandman Hotel, Kelowna https://www.kelownachamber.org/events