VICTORIA \u2014 B.C. Finance Minister Brenda Bailey says government\u2019s plan to find $1.5 billion in savings over three years won\u2019t be enough to \u201cstart bending the curve towards balance\u201d as the province forecasts an unprecedent deficit of $11.6 billion.<\/p>\n
Bailey was part of a panel at the Union of British Columbia Municipalities annual convention in Victoria, saying the savings estimate is \u201creally a placeholder number,\u201d as the government works on a complex process to find ways to bring down the deficit and the debt, which is expected to reach more than $212 billion in two years\u2019 time. <\/p>\n
Bailey says this work \u201cis not optional\u201d because if both figures continue to rise, B.C. will have \u201cless money to spend on things like hospitals and infrastructure\u201d and other things that \u201cmatter deeply\u201d to municipalities and residents. <\/p>\n
Bailey says that B.C. has taken steps to grow the economy, with two out of the five recently announced projects of national significance located in B.C., adding that the province is also \u201cunlocking\u201d other opportunities in the resource sector, while building on existing and emerging sectors like the provincial life-science sector among others. <\/p>\n
David Williams, vice-president of policy for the Business Council of British Columbia, says he doesn\u2019t see any plan to get the deficit under control, adding that B.C.\u2019s financial state is \u201cunravelling at a breathtaking speed\u201d while government has not done enough to improve productivity and grow the economy over the past years. <\/p>\n
Warren Lovely, managing director with National Bank Financial, says there is \u201cno quick, easy fix\u201d for B.C.\u2019s deficit, which is the largest in Canada, and adds that government needs to revise tax rules and regulations, because the current economic circumstances represent an \u201cexistential threat\u201d to the provincial economy that won\u2019t be over as fast as COVID-19. <\/p>\n
Tamara Vrooman, president and CEO at Vancouver International Airport, says the province runs the risk of losing its \u201chard-won reputation\u201d for being an economic leader, adding that new emerging sectors are \u201csimply not big enough to overcome the headwinds\u201d facing the province. <\/p>\n
All speakers agreed the provincial economy needs to change, and Lovely agreed with Williams, who says that the American tariffs imposed by U.S. President Donald Trump are a \u201cwake-up call\u201d for B.C. <\/p>\n
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 23, 2025.<\/p>\n
Wolfgang Depner, The Canadian Press<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"VICTORIA \u2014 B.C. Finance Minister Brenda Bailey says government\u2019s plan to find $1.5 billion in savings over three…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":166668,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[45,49,48,46,714,17128],"class_list":{"0":"post-166667","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-economy","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-canada","11":"tag-economy","12":"tag-politics","13":"tag-prairies-bc"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/166667","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=166667"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/166667\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/166668"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=166667"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=166667"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=166667"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}