BC is not only broke … it’s going further into debt this year … and says next year will be even worse!
Finance Minister Brenda Bailey predicted in her 2026 BC Budget the province’s deficit (spending more than it takes in) will hit $9.6 BILLION … and next year, she plans to overspend by another $13.3 BILLION!
So much for the NDP promise that BC’s deficit would “come down year over year.”
The current projected deficit will swell BC’s total debt in 2026 to $183 BILLION!!
(Yes, I’m SHOUTING these figures, because BC taxpayers must WAKE UP!! The province’s debt has skyrocketed 178 per cent since the NDP became BC’s government in 2017 … and that includes a 49 per cent jump just since David Eby became Premier, and now there’s an admission/prediction by the Finance Minister the debt will go up ANOTHER 50 PER CENT in the next three years!!!!).
Holy Bankruptcy, Brenda!
No one could ever run their own/business finances like that.
Maybe the BC Government should just call Sands and Associates and file for one of those “Consumer Proposals” they tout on BC airwaves as a solution for those drowning in debt?
What makes the 2026 BC Budget even more depressing is that these terrible deficit/debt figures are projected, DESPITE the government saying it will also: raise Income Taxes on the middle class and higher earners; expand the Provincial Sales Tax to more goods/services; increase school tax on high-end homes; cut 15,000 government jobs; cut the BC Training and Education Savings Grant, end the rural and northern homeowner grant; and, freeze adding any more $10-a-day child care spaces.
So where is the money going?
If there’s any news in the Budget to help calm taxpayers, it’s that the government plans to spend: $2.8 billion more over three years for health care; $634 million more on K-12 education; $330 million morebfor child care fee reduction; $139 million more on community safety; and, $5 billion is set aside for contingencies, “such as wildfires and other emergencies that require the province to help out financially”, according to The Vancouver Sun.
(You can read the full article here: https://vancouversun.com/news/bc-budget-2026-how-it-will-affect-you.)
BC clearly is in a financial mess … and the future looks bleak as well.
The BC Real Estate Association says the Budget will “burden the development sector with tax increases, imperiling the ability of the province to meet its own long-term housing supply targets”.
BC Conservative Finance Critic Peter Milobar called it “is an assault on seniors, working families and the small businesses that drive our economy.”
“Any cut to front line services, any cut to unionized employees, that provide critical services to British Columbians, is not just going to hurt people that need those services right now, it is also going to hurt the economy.” said BC General Employees’ Union President Paul Finch.
“What we are doing is protecting the gains that we’ve made over the last year,” explained the Finance Minister. “We’re protecting the gains that we’ve made in child care. We’re protecting the gains that we’ve made investing in new hospitals and in education. We’re protecting those gains, but we’re not adding new things on that we would like to.”
Bailey blamed US tariffs and falling resource revenues for BC’s tough financial situation.
She did not mention Indigenous land claims, opposition to pipelines, coastal traffic, the implications of the Cowichan lands decision; or Eby’s insistence on just amending, not repealing DRIPA.
Scary to even imagine what impact those current problems handicapping BC will have on next year’s BC Budget!
Harv Oberfeld
(Follow @harveyoberfeld on “X” for FREE First Alerts to new postings on this Blog.)
Everyone please do not make the Massey tunnel issue a FastFerry issue with invented history.
A short recap: The fast ferry debacle started with the social Credit who wanted a Iona island to Gabriola island ferry. A 40 minute crossing would be possible with catamaran type, car only ferry’s. By doing o it would take pressure off of the Tsawwassen terminal and with a bridge from Gabriola to Vancouver Island, an stop the heavily subsidized ferry service to the island.
Well the Islanders revolted and the plan was dropped but not the FastCats, which had to be redesigned to fit a the two established routes from the mainland to Vancouver island.
Of course they failed, but the NDP, inheriting a futuristic ferry, which they believed would win them votes did the opposite. The NDP should have said “sorry but these boats were designed for a specific service and with the plan now abandoned, so are the boats”, but they didn’t.
The MasseyTunnel/Bridge affair is more of the same.
The original crossing plan was a bridge/tunnel starting from around 80th Ave in Delta, crossing the south Arm to Richmond, then a highway to the North Arm and a bridge/tunnel to South Burnaby. That was told to me by the deputy minister of Transportation at a meeting around 2000, as it was part of the south Fraser Perimeter Road Plan.
The BN&SF Railway, eying future increased deliveries of Braken Oil and Montana coal, wanted cheaper freight costs by not paying “wheelage” to BC Rail, which still exists and owns/operates the railway connecting to the Supperport.
By allowing the BN&SF direct access to Surrey Docks, they would not need to pay “wheelage” but there was a problem, the Massey Tunnel acted as a dike, preventing deep drought Cape Max tankers and Colliers up the Fraser River and the the then Christy Clark Liberal government was lobbied to replace the Massey tunnel with a bridge.
That plan died when the Port Authority refused to pay the federal government around $1 billion to readjust all the weirs and dikes to help the river to self scour allowing the much larger tankers and colliers up the river.
As the FastFerry’s, the bridge project took on a politcal aspect as unscrupulous politicians got into the act.
The problem with the bridge was twofold: 1) Cost. As of 2018, the cost of the bridge was put at $8 billion; 2) Foundation. The original tunnel was built because there was no affordable firm footing for the massive cement towers needed for the cable stayed bridge.
All through this debate, those same unscrupulous politcans also refuse to acknowledge that with no new crossing of the North Arm of the Fraser, Hwy. 99 will be gridlocked.
Like the FastFerry, the bridge tunnel debate is based on politcal opportunism and not sound engineering.
From my notes.
Eby was never a leader. As you indicated. GVRD festers in completed dysfunction, Nada. Downtown Eastside pffft, Fraser River bridge/tunnel debacle a sad joke. DRIPA. Misguided moral high ground acolytes with ZERO fiscal acumen.
Fire hosing other peoples taxed earnings with no eye on the bottom line? Easy. Making hard decisions for the betterment of the the whole? Tough. He and the rest of his caucus seems unable to grasp the fiscal part of his responsibilities. Blame Trump! Pathetic deflection that ain’t resonating with anyone.
NDP with Eby as leader chose the morally indefensible path of ballooning the deficit and debt for future generations to continue the party for his government.
Now the NDP will be sent to the woodshed next election. Probably doesn’t matter who the Conservative party picks at this point (hopefully a moderate centrist with fiscal discipline, they need to really look at how PP cant get, nor will, pass the finish line pandering to the extreme right. )
Remember when Jenny Kwan and Joy McPhail were the only 2 remaining after the last putsch. Might be worse next election.
(Response: No doubt Eby/NDP should have a real challenge in seeing another term. It’s hard to imagine another term, without a huge turnaround in the economy, DRIPA, housing costs, health care, public safety.. But never write off an incumbent party (government) before the votes are counted. Ask Pierre Poilievre. Ho)
Those who do not read history are doomed to repeat it!
The ghosts of 2001 are now haunting the NDP.
Elder abuse (which the change to the homeowners tax deferral program is) and the DRIPA land seizures now and coming up are going to be the the big election issues.
David Eby’s budget shows panic. This outfit in Victoria hasn’t a clue about fiscal responsibility. “They could not even run a peanuts stand” (WAC Bennett)
Out of control bureaucracy, due to dated and imbecilic programs.
The full program cost, to extend the Expo and Millennium Lines a mere 21.7 km on routes which ridership could be easily handled by much cheaper buses ($500K), is now past $16 billion.
$10 billion to add an HOV Lane to the #1 hwy from Langley to Chilliwack. (Hint: Rail for the Valley’s Vancouver to Chilliwak regional railway would move far more people, take cars off the road for a mere $2 billion)
That is over $26 billion and counting and is only a drop in the bucket with Eby’s and the NDP’s wanton spending.
Letting Metro Vancouver run rampant with no control of spending, no oversight, no fiscal responsibility.
And then there is DRIPA!
I could go on and on.
If Eby wanted some credibility he should have reduced both provincial and municipal politcans pay by 20%. Reduce all provincial and municipal bureaucrats pay by an equal amount and capping pay at no more than $200K maximum.
Ban all stipends paid for by Metro Vancouver to politcans because they were never elected to serve on metro Vancouver Boards.
Compel the auditor General to do annual independent audits of all crown corporations and regional districts.
Cancel DRIPA!
But premier Eby and the NDP have little credibility and are in power solely because of the Maple MAGA’s and anti vax/science climate change nutters in the BC Conservative party.
A final note; watching the finance minister on TV trying to sell her shakedown budget, she reminded me of White House spokesperson Karoline Levitt – nuff said!
(Response: I believe the “Eby Era” … or “The NDP Eby Debacle” as it may become known in BC political history (credit me if it catches, please! 🙂 ) will be remembered for TWO disastrous things: the NDP’s handling of the Massey Tunnel project (the wider, more functional new bridge would have already been built!!) … makes the Fast Ferries look like spare change waste of taxpayers’ money; and DRIPA, for the turmoil and possibly billions it will cost/wipe from property values. Ho)
I’ve taken a couple of days to digest this fiscal disaster and I’m still incensed now as I was when they dropped this upon us. It was no secret that Eby had blown through billions on heavens knows what, but to this degree!!, with more to come and not even a hint of how it was going to be fixed, fiscal irresponsibility doesn’t come close to describing this mess, but that’s all I come up with, and I’m not usually lost for words. And to be sure, this was the best spin they could put on it and hide whatever debt outside of the budget speech.
Before the budget was dropped one of the local pundits opined that Eby would be gone by the end of this year, and to that point you mentioned in a couple of responses when you posted this Feb. 2:
“Good News and Bad News for Eby Government in Latest Poll”
“”I keep thinking of Justin Trudeau when I see Eby: the latest poll shows public are growing increasingly tired of him””
Which I’m sure spoke for many of us but has now accelerated to the point of quoting Oliver Cromwell et. al. “You have sat too long here for any good you have been doing. Depart, I say, and let us have done with you. In the name of God, go.”
“”and realize when it’s time to take a walk in the snow …or rain. Eby is clearly not at that point yet, but if the litany of problems facing BC show no improvement or get even worse, some within the party or among their supporters could push him out the door.””
He may not have been at that point then but in just under 3 weeks he sure is now as the litany of problems facing B.C. for the foreseeable future and beyond brought about by him have no tangible improvement on the horizon.
For the conservatives this is a is as good as it can get. An NDP government by their own admission wracking up debt to stratospheric levels, with not much to show for it except keeping the gong show running. Exactly the perception with the exception of the true believers that most of us have. However, conservatives and right wing govts. are also guilty of doing the same thing, but are better at trotting out the opposite narrative. And even better for the conservatives, they don’t have to do much except keep their heads down, keep the flat earthers and full mooners out of the news, elect a leader with no ties to the previous liberals , B.C. united or Kevin Falcon, sit back and watch Eby and the gang dig the hole deeper.
Now it’s probably a waiting game to see how long will it be for the NDP MLAs after getting a slim win in the last election look for self survival, and the movers and shakers to come to terms that Eby is a liability and to take action on your words “some within the party or among their supporters could push him out the door.””
(Response: Eby has destroyed one of the greatest achievements of John Horgan: remediating the reputation of the NDP for being incompetent at managing public money… experts at spending, over-spending, wasteful, with a bloated bureaucracy and dishing out millions to their favoured supporters, with little or no accountability or accomplished success. Horgan worked very hard to achieve fiscal balance and exercise responsibility … and succeeded, leaving his successor (Eby) a surplus in the bank. Eby blew it all … and billions more, well beyond any “Covid” excuses. There should probably be a public inquiry into how the current NDP government made such a mess of BC’s spending, the economy, forestry, land rights, housing policy, drugs, crime and public safety … but that too would cost millions, go way over budget, and end up changing nothing! Ho)
The hits just keep on coming……Except for ownership of multiple fiscal failures in the recent past…..
15,000 recent hires, 15,000 recent fires, C’mon cause & effect logic is not a stretch?
Housing programs shuttered & now not funded, a decent outcome for a controlling mob which never should have ventured into the housing business in the first place!
Stalled infrastructure funding Province wide, Vancouver gets vanity subways, the rest get endless potholes and road washouts….
Far too little, far too late, with zero ownership of the plethora of crappy choices which cause this about face (just a correction due to forces all beyond the NDP’s control according to the spin cycle talking heads).
Fee simple vs. aboriginal title, powder keg, Eby’s hill to die upon, a concept so useless all the FN people I know say it’s a double edged sword offering no real long term solution, witness Tsawwassen and Musqueam objections, Eby, Eby, Eby, your chorus of crickets is deafening….. A tweek of a rotten concept is not sufficient, toss it with your filthy bathwater! A concept so detestable it really sends folks scurrying to separatist’s camps, a concept far beyond the realm of NDP understanding! Cause & effect logic, in a vacuum in Eby’s coven.
Thanks Urban dwellers, your votes created most of this nonsense, your programs deserve to be curtailed first…..signed a Proud resident of the Hinterlands…..
(Response: I’m not so sure that the Tsawwassen and Musqueam objections to the Cowichan decision is based on principle: my interpretation is that they see the Richmond lands as “theirs” … not the Cowichans, who are based on Vancouver Island. Ho)
I agree that Tsawwassen & Musqueam both covet that slice of Richmond. Geographically speaking they have a far better case than the Cowichan do.
Does The UNDRIPA framework take into account the pre-colonization land occupancy? Is this the sole determinate factor in judgements? Does pre-colonial residence take precidence?
Did any of these questions get 10 seconds in the NDP caucus when they put this legislative mess forward?
Will future DRIPA rulings favor seasonal fishing/foraging grounds as title, will it reference historical year round residents? Does it reward FN title to winning First Nations only (face it, conflicts amongst FN’s is not a new or post colonization issue) or to beaten down losers of past conflicts before colonization?
I fail to see how Eby, Horgan, Meggs et al considered any of these potential issues before stumping for a law mostly crafted by UN employed third world corrupt bureaucrats? Tell me I’m wrong…..
As a proud Canadian I see the separatist leanings of some being fueled by the nonsense in the Leg, Eby & co. can own the fanning of those silly fires as well!
(Response: Eby is stubborn and will try to solve the DRIPA disaster with amendments. That may please his ideological base and FN too … but I doubt it will satisfy homeowners and especially big bucks investors, developers, who can put their dollars elsewhere, without1 fear that they’ll lose it in a Court ruling! DRIPA must be repealed completely Ho)
The debt will continue until morale improves .. or ideology? Call an election before it’s too late . Carbon tax drop- 2 B anually cost?
Er, wasn’t the Carbon Tax supposed to be revenue neutral? I know I have been vilified on other posts to even suggest the Carbon Tax was a revenue generator.
Just saying………….