The B.C. government’s 2025 budget has received criticism from a variety of community and industry leaders, but Finance Minister Brenda Bailey assures that it “puts British Columbians first.”
Deficit
Budget 2025 forecasts a $10.9-billion deficit for the 2025–26 fiscal year before declining to $10.2 billion in 2026–27 and $9.9 billion in 2027–28.
The record-breaking deficit has ignited criticism from the B.C. Chamber of Commerce and the Business Council of B.C., both of which say the province’s continued reliance on significant deficits is alarming and lacks a clear path to restoring fiscal sustainability.
When asked for her response to these concerns, Minister Bailey told Vista Radio that “deficits have a place” during challenging economic times, which has been the case since the pandemic ended.
“We’ve seen a worldwide economic headwind. We made the decision not to cut back on services for people. A different decision would have looked like significant cuts to health care and the services that people really rely on. We didn’t make that decision, and we are starting to see really good results from the money that we’re spending.”
That said, she notes that deficit spending can’t go on forever, assuring that her government is working towards a path to balance.
“That’s work that we’re doing now. So you see in the budget, there’s $1.5 billion we predict coming back into the coffers of British Columbia because we’re going to be focused on an efficiency review—looking at whether every dollar is landing the way we wanted it to, whether we’re getting the results that we expected from our spending.”
Tackling the deficit will involve focused spending and growing revenue. An example of how this will be applied in Budget 2025 is the acceleration of 18 natural resource projects, which Bailey says will bring in $20 billion of activity into B.C. and create 8,000 jobs.
Supporting the Forestry Sector
The B.C. Council of Forest Industries (COFI) has also voiced concerns that Budget 2025 appears to lack support for the forestry sector.
On top of former U.S. president Donald Trump’s tariffs, the forestry sector is now facing an increase in preliminary rates to 20.07 per cent on duties for softwood lumber.
Bailey calls these anti-dumping duties “completely unjust and unfair” and vows that the province will fight against them.
“We will be fighting against them in all diplomatic channels. It is uncalled for and unjust and will have a negative effect on our forestry industry. And look, this has been going on for a while. We also know that the tariffs will be on top of these anti-dumping duties, which is unfair for the industry. We will continue to work diligently to address these, but the U.S. has been an unreasonable partner so far in this regard.”
COFI says Budget 2025 also fails to honour the government’s commitment to harvest 45 million cubic metres as outlined in its election platform, instead predicting a decline to 29 million cubic metres by 2027–28.
This is below what COFI says is the Allowable Annual Cut of 60 million cubic metres, adding that harvest levels are critical to the province’s economy.
Bailey didn’t provide much insight into why Budget 2025 doesn’t meet this harvest commitment but says B.C.’s Minister of Forests is “working closely” with COFI and feels confident that their concerns will be resolved.
Budget 2025 promises to streamline the permitting and regulatory process for major projects. Bailey says the province will explore applying this approach to the forestry sector as it works to “keep British Columbians working.”
“We are looking at streamlining in every industry. When we talk about tariff impact and unemployment insurance, what we want is British Columbians working. We are going to build, we’re going to get projects moving, and we’re going to get people working. That’s the most important thing we can do during this time of uncertainty.”
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