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‘Wake-up call’: Business Council of B.C. says provincial deficit unsustainable

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Economy News

BC NDP,Deficit,Politics

B.C.'s latest fiscal update forecasts an $8.9 billion deficit for 2024, the province's largest ever and something the Business Council of B.C. says is unsustainable.

The Business Council of BC is raising concerns over the province's finances. As Richard Zussman reports, it says the new B.C. Finance Minister needs to commit to a timeframe to balance the budget.

A major British Columbia business group is sounding a “wake-up call” over the provincial government’s money management.“That’s larger than the deficit we ran during the COVID-19 pandemic,” said Business Council of B.C. vice-president of policy David Williams.“We have the largest deficit relative to the size of our economy of any province, we’ve got rapidly rising indebtedness, and we’ve seen repeated credit rating downgrades.

He said newly-appointed Finance Minister Brenda Bailey needs to prioritize reining in the deficit while finding ways to speed up economic growth — whether that be through tax changes, streamlined regulations or reduced permitting times.BC Conservative finance critic Peter Milobar said with big capital projects facing delays and ballooning budgets, that problem will only get worse.

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