Tough sell for B.C. budget featuring tax hike, record deficit and construction delays

B.C. Minister of Finance Brenda Bailey tables the provincial budget as Premier David Eby, right, looks on in the assembly at legislature in Victoria, on Tuesday, Feb. 17, 2026. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Chad Hipolito

VICTORIA — British Columbia’s finance minister begins selling a budget today that has drawn critics from all sides with its soaring debt and deficit, public sector cuts, and construction delays for care homes, student housing and a cancer centre.

Brenda Bailey calls the budget “serious work for serious times.”

It raises the base income tax rate by 0.54 per cent — the first increase in 26 years — while the deficit is predicted to soar to a record $13.3 billion next fiscal year.

The province says it will also cut 15,000 full-time public sector jobs over the next three years.

BC Federation of Labour secretary-treasurer Hermender Singh Kailley is calling for transparency to ensure the cuts won’t affect front-line service delivery.

BC General Employees’ Union president Paul Finch says they wanted to see “strategic investment” in services that keep costs down but instead saw more cuts to the public workforce.

Finch says the province has broken a promise that keeping costs down could be achieved by “rightsizing” the ratio of management to front-line service workers, and it will be challenging to build an economy on a “weakened public foundation.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 18, 2026.