The British Columbia Government is canceling a reimbursement of prompting $ 1,000 and will freez Says the Minister of Finance, Brenda Bailey.
Bailey said Thursday that the impacts of “reckless” tariffs and “destabilizers” threatened by the president of the United States, Donald Trump, are impossible to predict.
The movements occur when the BC budget will be presented on March 4, on the same day of a month pause on Trump’s rates on Canadian goods it will expire and a little more than a week before tariffs especially aluminum And foreign steel can also begin.
The province is already seeing economic effects, despite the fact that tariffs are not yet in their place, and it would be “incorrect underestimate” their potential impact, Bailey said in an informative news session.
Electoral promise
In the campaign for the October elections, the ruling NDP had promised that the reimbursement of groceries of $ 1,000 would be delivered to all homes this fiscal year that ends on March 31. Prime Minister David Eby had promoted promise as immediate relief, in contrast to the opposition BC BC Conservative Tax- The promises of relief that he said would not deliver until 2026.
Bailey said she is disappointed that the government cannot maintain its electoral promise on reimbursement, but that it would be an expense of $ 2 billion when economic circumstances are incredibly difficult.
“This was a commitment we wanted to do. We did it with the intention of doing so, but the world has changed,” he said.
“It is our responsibility to ensure to protect central services for people in British Columbia, that we protect medical care, that we protect education, which we protect social services, which we protect security in our streets.”
Peter Milobar, a financial critic of opposition BC conservatives, said the NDP government is looking for an scapegoat for its poor fiscal management.
“He just has to return to the elections where David Eby was mocking routinely of what BC conservatives were saying in terms of bringing tax cuts slowly and tax dejection for British Colombians, as we could pay it,” said Merobar A CBC News.
“Instead, he tried to make them seem to have a plan to put money immediately in their pocket. At the time he finished the elections, he was looking for ways to give up such promises.”
Bailey said that the freezing of hiring affects the public service of the province, which includes the people who work within the government ministries and directly for the ministries.
Jobs such as health workers, who are part of the general public sector, as well as specific public service work such as correctional and social workers, would not be affected, he said.
“It is our goal to find dollars that may not have landed exactly as we expected to do so. That is our first approach and the most hopeful piece,” he said.
“We will also see things like the costs and places of travel and consulting where we could find efficiencies throughout the government.”
Paul Finch, president of the BC General Employee Union, said in an interview with the Canadian press that the union on freezing was not informed in advance and has not seen the list of “central” works that will be protected.
“Civil service plays an incredibly important economic function, not only with public safety but also with seemingly mundane tasks, such as policy analysts who work on natural resources permits and other key economic projects that we must guarantee continue, especially now in the face of a commercial dispute, “he said.
Finch said that first -line positions do not have a staff success.
He said that the government must adopt “a measured and careful approach” to undertake this type of movements and should be analyzing the proportion of non -trade union managers to first -line workers, which, according to him, is now 1: 3 after being 1: 4 years ago.
Trump has said that he plans a 25 percent rate on most Canadian goods and 10 percent energy. The United States also announced a rate of 25 percent especially foreign aluminum and steel earlier this week that Trump said it would be stacked in specific Canada rates from mid -March.
Bailey said the economic modeling for rates, and Canada’s reprisals, shows that BC could lose $ 69 billion in GDP for four years and tens of thousands of jobs.
“We could never imagine a situation in which our closest neighbor has essentially declared an economic war in Canada. It is unimaginable and the implications could be huge,” he said.
The minister said the government considered making two budgets due to imminent tariffs, but decided against it, choosing to develop a budget focused on protecting services.
She said that the budget took into account the “best estimates” of 13 senior economists in the whole country, which constitute the BC Economic Forecast Council.
“All these economists had the opportunity to update us, including what they perceive as tariff impacts, and approximately half of them provided us updates,” he said.
“That is the economic modeling that we have included for the decisions we have made in the budget.”
