Highlights

In the leadup to the 2025/26 Provincial Budget and beyond, the Business Council of British Columbia (BCBC) offers its perspectives on the state of the economy and its finances. We recognise this will be a challenging budget given the home-grown and external pressures our economy is facing.

•Going into 2025, we were concerned about the stagnation in living standards, the near absence of private sector job creation since 2019, and the rapid deterioration of B.C.’s public finances over the past two fiscal years.

•Compounding these domestic challenges, our economy now faces external shocks in the form of potential tariffs on a broad range of Canadian exports to the U.S. The Trump administration’s trade, tax, and regulatory policies present a major threat to our industrial base. We cannot allow our industrial base to downsize or relocate to the U.S.

•We commend the B.C. government for its three-point plan to respond to U.S. tariff threats, strengthen the economy by expediting 18 resource projects (with more to come), and prioritizing export diversification into non-U.S. markets. Building on this, we believe it’s important to complement these measures with policy ideas that position B.C.’s economy for greater resilience and long-term growth.

•Our recommendations for this submission focus on restoring fiscal discipline, improving B.C.’s tax competitiveness for investment and skilled workers, growing the economy while reducing global emissions, reducing interprovincial trade barriers, and building on the province’s regulatory reform foundations.