After months of hype and three days of related announcements, Premier Christy Clark told a Vancouver Board of Trade luncheon that the investments the government is making as part of her new jobs plan are small, but that they will make a big difference to British Columbia.

But observers from across the political spectrum described the plan as lacking substance, and said it's unlikely to do anything to boost employment in the province.

"The spending commitments we're making are pretty modest, and I'm proud of that," Clark said in the September 22 speech billed as an overview of the Canada Starts Here jobs plan. "Sometimes government needs to get out of the way."

She later told reporters that everything announced this week will cost less than $300 million. Rather than commit large amounts of new money to job programs or less direct stimulus spending, Clark stressed that it is up to the private sector to create jobs and that the government's job is to create an environment where that's possible.

How many jobs, she could not say. "I don't think it's responsible to try to come up with phony numbers," she said after a reporter said that by his count, the direct jobs from this week's announcements totalled no more than 3,000.

Job number predictions tend to turn out to be wrong, said Clark. "I'm not going to get into playing that game."

Clark committed in the speech to being the number one salesperson trying to attract investment to B.C., much as she had promised earlier in the week to do the same for increasing the number of foreign students in the province.

She also repeated a geography lesson, stressing as she had earlier in the week that the province should take better advantage of its proximity to Asia. That message will also be prominent in her September 23 speech to the BC Business Council "to outline how Asia plays a central role" in her jobs plan.

Money for Deltaport, new offices

For those looking beyond the rhetoric, the speech included the following promises:

- $50 million to improve the BC Rail tracks to Deltaport, part of a $200 million expansion the government says will add 600 to 800 jobs.

- $24 million to reduce the time it takes to get approvals and permits for natural resource development.

- Support for building eight new mines and expanding nine others, which the government says will add 1,800 new jobs in the sector.

- Creating a major investments office "that will work with investors proposing significant projects in B.C. to co-ordinate and accelerate government's activities to support them."

- Creating a B.C. Jobs and Investment Board "to promote economic development by promoting investment opportunities and identifying any issues and processes that may be limiting that investment.

- Creating an Aboriginal Business and Investment Council "to enhance Aboriginal people's capacity for economic participation, transcend traditional Aboriginal and industry silos in project planning and development and provide investors with the tools they need to engage and partner with B.C. First Nations."

Commitments made in announcements earlier in the week included:

- Plans to add an additional $3 million to the $30-million Small Business Venture Capital Tax Credit program, a move the premier said would "help small businesses access early-stage venture capital to help commercialize ideas, attract and retain employees, expand operations and bring their ideas to global markets."

- Increasing the number of international students by 50 per cent over four years, which Clark said would add 9,000 jobs and $500 million to the provincial economy.

- Creating an international education council to help sell B.C. education to countries such as China, India, Brazil and Saudi Arabia, and using B.C. trade offices to attract international students.

- Allocate $15 million towards a project to expand the capacity of the Port of Prince Rupert, predicted to create 570 direct jobs.

- Setting a goal to have at least one liquid natural gas plant operational by 2015.

Plan leaves people out, says Dix

Considering Premier Clark has said job creation will be the primary focus of her government, the much promised plan has turned out to be very thin, said BC NDP leader Adrian Dix.

"It's a bit of make-it-up-as-you-go-along," he said. "You have a jobs plan and there are really no jobs in it... After all the hype around this, this is an incredibly disappointing result."

Speaking to reporters following Clark's speech, Dix focused on the missed opportunities. "There's nothing for forestry," he said. "Nothing for tourism. Nothing for high tech. Nothing for the knowledge-based economy."

The government's own figures show that by 2020, some 80 per cent of jobs will require a post-secondary degree, but Clark's plan fails to boost access to that kind of education, he said.

"Really what we have is a plan that leaves the people out," he said. "No investment in human beings."

Nor did Clark come up with any way to turn B.C.'s natural resources into jobs for the people who live in the province, instead focusing on exports, he said. "It's an extremely disappointing plan."

Three pillars are sound, says Bell

The jobs package rests upon three central pillars, said Jobs, Tourism, and Innovation Minister Pat Bell.

The plan is to expand markets for B.C. products overseas, invest in physical and human infrastructure, and create "the right foundation" to stimulate job creation throughout the province by reducing taxes and regulations, Bell told reporters a few hours after Clark's speech.

Stressing the international bent of the Clark government's approach, Bell explained the jobs initiative would target "first dollar industries" -- those areas of the economy most likely to attract foreign investment or foreign customers.

Or as Clark had put it earlier, "We are going out aggressively in pursuit of that first new dollar to bring it into B.C. and get that circulating around. That's ultimately the only thing that will grow the economy."

The plan, Bell said, also highlights eight sectors where the government believes there's room to grow: forestry, mining, natural gas, transportation, tourism, agri-food, technology and international education.

"This program is sound, it will deliver, and I am confident that the province of British Columbia will have the most vibrant economy," said Bell. "Our premier is very excited about this."

CCPA economist: plan lacks substance

Despite Clark's feelings for the plan, economists expressed doubts.

"There's not much there," Marc Lee, economist at the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives told The Tyee. "It's all media strategy and very little actual substance."

Lee pointed to what he described as an irrational aversion to government spending and interference in economic affairs on the one hand, and a short-sighted commitment to resource extraction and export on the other.