BINDA: What's happening in BC isn't normal

Things have gone from bad to worse on the West Coast. 

Premier David Eby is driving BC’s finances into the ditch. Instead of fixing the problems, he keeps doubling down on bad policy. 

BC used to have a sterling reputation when it came to managing taxpayer money. We had a perfect credit rating for 14 years before 2021. Now credit rating agency S&P Global has downgraded BC five times in five years, from AAA to A. 

That’s not just a fall from grace, it’s an avalanche of downgrades. 

“With peak operating deficits of more than 10% of total revenues and after-capital deficits of more than 20% of total revenues, BC’s budgetary performance will be the weakest of peers, both domestic and internationally,” wrote S&P Global in its most recent downgrade. 

BC doesn’t just have the worst budget in Canada. We’re the worst of our peers in the world. Words like that from rating agencies should be setting off sirens in the premier’s office. 

And when you look at the numbers, it’s no wonder that the rating agencies are sounding the alarm.

BC lost 19,000 jobs in March and 20,000 in February, according to Statistics Canada. That was the biggest drop in jobs of any province in the country last month. 

Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Quebec and Nova Scotia all saw big increases in job numbers. Ontario held steady. Once again, we’re standing out for all the wrong reasons. 

Our debt has exploded under Eby’s watch. Every British Columbian’s individual share of the provincial debt was the equivalent of $16,800 in 2021. That’s nearly doubled to $32,500 this year. Under Eby’s current plan, it will hit $40,900 by 2029.  

That works out to a 143% increase in per-person debt in just eight years. 

BC is adding more than $30 billion to the provincial debt this year. Ontario is three times bigger than BC and it’s adding $25.8 billion worth of debt. 

And big debt means big interest charges. Provincial debt interest costs taxpayers $6.9 billion this year. Those interest charges will explode to $8.9 billion by 2029. 

Interest costs are the third biggest line item in the provincial budget. It costs BC taxpayers more than everything except health care and education. 

Along with his massive debt, Eby is also hiking taxes on families and businesses by $4.2 billion over the next three years.   

Eby seems allergic to changing course and fixing our finances. 

When the Canadian Taxpayers Federation caught Eby billing taxpayers $165,000 for 1,000 cups of coffee as part of a publicity stunt in Seattle, he defended the stunt and said he was thinking about doing it again. 

The finance minister was caught billing taxpayers for a $6,600 SUV-limousine service during a four-day “junket” in Boston. She also defended the wasteful spending, saying she’d do it again. 

Just take a look at the NDP’s so-called community benefits agreements, which should be called community ripoff agreements. It’s a policy that prevents about 85% of construction workers from bidding on provincial government building projects, in favour of hand-picked union allies. 

The community ripoff agreement has contributed to $17 billion worth of cost overruns on government building projects, according to Prince George MLA Kiel Giddens. 

When Giddens proposed a bill to bring government building costs down by scrapping it, government MLAs repeatedly opposed the proposal. 

This is a government that doesn’t even want to try to look for savings. It defends spending $165 per cup of coffee and riding in expensive SUV-limousines. It chooses to protect political friends and allies, instead of the taxpayers’ bottom line. 

The government is steering the province towards the ditch. And Eby's showing no signs of tapping the brakes. 

Carson Binda is the BC Director for the Canadian Taxpayers Federation.