There was precious little to brag about in the province’s year-end financials Thursday, not that it stopped the NDP government from trying.

“It's our approach that we are focusing on protecting services for people, the services that are most important to them, while still bringing down costs,” said Finance Minister Brenda Bailey.

The largest deficit in British Columbia history. Debt up 50 per cent in two years. A structural deficit no one’s even pretending to control. Emergency funds raided for day-to-day spending. And multiple credit rating downgrades.

“I intend to change the direction that these credit ratings are going,” said Bailey. “We’re taking this work very seriously. And the work that we're doing on our efficiency review, the work that we're doing on managing government spending, and, very importantly, the work that we're doing on increasing revenue is related to this work as well.”

But the numbers don’t back that up.

The 2024-25 fiscal year closed with a $7.3-billion deficit. That’s a tad less than budgeted, mainly due to investment earnings in places like ICBC. Yet it’s still the largest ever—blowing past the $5.5 billion in red ink the province ran during the height of the global emergency caused by the COVID-19........

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