Political Analyst Shirley Bond says Budget 2025 doesn’t do enough to support British Columbians facing affordability concerns.
The budget was released Tuesday, coinciding with sweeping 25 per cent tariffs imposed on all Canadian goods by US President Donald Trump.
“I think anyone can recognize it’s a pretty complicated time to introduce a budget,” she said.
“I don’t think any of us would have imagined that on the very same day the Province of BC brings down its budget, that we’d be facing punitive tariffs from our ally and neighbour to the south. The context is quite different this budget time.”
The budget comes with a projected deficit of $10.9 million.
“What we see in this budget is record setting debt,” Bond said.
“If you look at what happened, we see debt continuing to increase, the forecast deficit in this budget is almost $11 billion and that’s an increase of $2 billion since last year’s forecast. I think it’s something we need to be concerned about.”
Bond added she was relieved to see the UHNBC tower in the budget.
“I’m very pleased to see that, having said that, when you look at the price tag, we are looking at an absolutely significant increase,” she said.
“We’re looking at $1.5 billion, and my biggest concern about that is when you look at the completion date, we’re talking about 2031. We’ve been asking and talking about this project for literally years in our part of the province.”
Bond said the critical issue of this budget is affordability.
“We need to be candid about the budget document, we were headed into a significantly challenging couple of years, tariffs or not,” she said.
“The tariffs have added to that complexity and also to the costs. I’m concerned about the impacts of tariffs, what is that going to look like. We see a budget for a three-year cycle that has $4 billion a year in contingencies and that’s to cover unexpected costs.”
Bond said the budget does very little to help British Columbians as they face the challenges of tariffs and economic circumstances.
“People are struggling every day to just get through filling their gas tanks, and putting groceries on the table,” she said.
“We certainly didn’t see many of the promises that had been made related to the grocery rebate, the whole issue of the carbon tax is going to be a real issue as we move into a potential federal election. Affordability needs to be front and centre as we try to support British Columbians on a day-to-day basis.”
Bond said what BC needs right now is to have a revenue generation plan that doesn’t rely on taxpayer pockets.
“We’ve got to be growing the economy, creating certainty, looking at things like speeding up permitting and dealing with red tape,” she said.
“The only way we’re going to actually going to continue to try to attract investment to British Columbia and that is absolutely essential when you’re looking at the debt levels we’re facing.”
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