PRINCE GEORGE – The numbers keep rolling by as BC racks up more debt by the hour. Literally.
The Canadian Taxpayers Federation has come to town as part of its provincial tour to highlight the amount of debt the province has acquired. And it’s more than a $112 billion. That’s a $21,000 burden that every British Columbin bears.
“Right now, it’s going up by about $53 million every week,” says Carson Binda, the BC Director for the Federation. “By the end of this fiscal year, we’re going to be staring down $123 billion worth of debt. This is a huge amount of money that we’re spending right now and borrowing.”
What’s behind BC’s debt? Well, an explosion in government spending on things like hospitals and roads.
“Sky-high record-breaking spending from the politicians in Victoria is what’s driving this debt. When they have big capital projects and time and time again, we’ve seen massive cost overruns.”
BC United Leader Kevin Falcon was in the city this week and isn’t surprised by the numbers. And lays the blame squarely at the government’s feet.
“We’ve more than doubled the provincial debt to over $100 billion, and we are facing the largest projected deficits in the history of the province of British Columbia. And the tragedy is with all that debt and all those deficits, it’s tied to the worst outcomes we’ve ever seen in crime and public safety, in health care outcomes, and in cost of living. And, frankly, that is not a good record that any government should be able to be proud of.”
And the message from the Federation to Premier David Eby is simple: Start tightening the belt.
“There is no shortage of places where Premier David Eby can start making cuts,” says Binda. “Political staffers shouldn’t be taking big pay raises when their constituents are lining up around the block to get into food banks.”
He says, that while every other level of government, such as municipalities and school boards, are expected to produce balanced budgets, the Province is not.
