B.C. to dodge recession without deficit, predicts finance minister
Last Updated: Thursday, November 20, 2008 | 3:49 PM PT
CBC News
Finance Minister Colin Hansen maintains that the province will not post a deficit budget. (CBC) B.C. will duck the looming global recession without running a deficit, and taxpayers will have an extra $70 in their wallets thanks to an economic relief package introduced in the legislature today, according to provincial Finance Minister Colin Hansen.
Hansen made the comments as B.C.'s members of the legislature returned to Victoria for the brief fall sitting with one big issue on their minds: how to brace the provincial economy for the impact of the global financial crisis.
None of the leading economists the ministry has consulted are forecasting that B.C. will fall into recession, Hansen said, adding that compared with other places, B.C. is doing remarkably well.
Hansen acknowledged that government revenues are falling and the government's original earlier predictions of a budget surplus of more than a billion dollars have been blown away, but he maintained the government would not post a deficit.
During the opening day of the new session on Thursday, the government also tabled the legislation for its $485-million 10-point plan to help B.C. fend off the world economic crisis.
The legislation will accelerate an income tax cut that's coming from revenues raised by the carbon tax on gasoline and other fuels. Hansen said the cut will mean an extra $70 for most taxpayers.
The plan will also allow homeowners facing financial hardship to defer their 2009 and 2010 property taxes, and protect RRSPs from seizure from creditors.
But the full scope of the fiscal outlook won't be fully revealed until Monday when Hansen tables the latest economic figures. NDP Leader Carole James said that information should have been presented before the MLAs sat down to debate the tax cuts.
"The fact that the finance minister had not come clean with what the fiscal update was like in British Columbia, what the economic conditions were like, when we are going into the legislature to debate a bill about spending taxpayer dollars, was completely irresponsible," said James on Thursday.
With files from the Canadian Press
