Cloverdale Chamber \u2018concerned\u2019 over 2026 B.C. budget<\/p>\n
Published 3:00 pm Friday, February 20, 2026<\/p>\n
Speaking on behalf of the Cloverdale District Chamber of Commerce, Scott Wheatley is expressing mixed reviews about the new 2026 B.C. provincial budget.<\/p>\n
Wheatley, executive director of the Cloverdale Chamber, said he sees some highlights in the budget and some lowlights.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Cloverdale Chamber sees good and bad in the budget,\u201d he told the Cloverdale Reporter. \u201cWe will be happy to see spending cuts made that don\u2019t impact citizen-facing programs and services.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said the Chamber is also glad to see more investment in infrastructure projects and more investments in training programs.<\/p>\n
However, Wheatley noted it\u2019s not the right time, nor the right economic climate, for tax increases.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are concerned with both the increases in personal income tax, which will no longer be indexed, and the addition of provincial sales tax to some services like accounting.\u201d<\/p>\n
He added the new taxes are disconcerting and could hurt seniors, working families, and small businesses.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe PST change will have a huge impact,\u201d Wheatley said. \u201cThis essentially increases a businesses cost by seven per cent and could decrease revenue for those companies now charging PST.\u201d<\/p>\n
He noted with the deficit expected to rise next year by $3.7 billion ($13.3 billion from $9.6 billion) before dropping to $12.1 billion and then $11.4 billion over the following years, he\u2019s concerned about the long-term costs to taxpayers.<\/p>\n
\u201cDebt servicing will now be the third largest ticket item for the province,\u201d he said. \u201cMoney that could be spent on healthcare, education, and infrastructure, will now, more than ever, go to servicing debt.\u201d<\/p>\n
Wheatley is also troubled by legislation introduced in the provincial budget that would abolish the independent Office of the Merit Commissioner. The responsibilities for the office would then be moved to the B.C. Public Service Agency.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is very concerning,\u201d he said. \u201cEthics and oversight have been taking a hit around the world, recently. We need independent oversight. So, I think that would be an important position to maintain. Without it, I could see trust being eroded.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Cloverdale Chamber \u2018concerned\u2019 over 2026 B.C. budget Published 3:00 pm Friday, February 20, 2026 Speaking on behalf of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":489809,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194299],"tags":[49,48,87674],"class_list":{"0":"post-489808","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-surrey","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-surrey"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/489808","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=489808"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/489808\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/489809"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=489808"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=489808"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=489808"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}