B.C.’s next budget is set to be revealed on Tuesday, Feb. 17.
Premier David Eby said to expect cuts.
“Absolutely, we’ll be reducing spending in the next budget,” he said in an unrelated news conference on Tuesday, Feb. 3. “But the reductions will be focused on administrative cost, bureaucracy, while we’re preserving frontline services for British Columbians.”
The latest quarterly financial update from the province projects the 2025/26 deficit at nearly $11.2 billion, with debt reaching more than $155 billion by the end of the fiscal year on March 31.
“We have to ensure that we’re driving down that deficit,” Eby said, adding that the government is trying to find the “balance” needed to ensure investments in education and health continue.
Finance Minister Brenda Bailey spoke on Jan. 29 to the Greater Vancouver Board of Trade about the economic headwinds facing the province, saying this will be a “tough budget,” and that she will be “the least popular person in the province for a while.”
She hinted that public sector job cuts might be included in the budget.
“We are also continuing with a hiring freeze in the public service, and we’ve got to go further,” she said.
Eby blamed inflation and global trade pressure for making it more difficult for the province to maintain services.
“The cost of delivering services and infrastructure continues to escalate, just like family budgets,” he said.
The goal is to get the province into a “stable financial position” to ensure the ability to respond to these challenges.
So far, B.C.’s economic outlook is mixed. Gross domestic product growth was about 1.4 per cent in 2025 and is projected to be 1.3 per cent in 2026, according to government statistics from late 2025. Meanwhile, the province’s population is in decline, with B.C. losing 13,651 residents between the fourth quarter of 2024 and the fourth quarter of 2025.