The British Columbia government is cancelling a promised $1,000 grocery rebate and will freeze hiring to “find dollars” in its budget as it prepares for “four years of unpredictability” from the United States, Finance Minister Brenda Bailey says.
Bailey said Thursday that the impacts of the “reckless” and “destabilizing” tariffs threatened by U.S. President Donald Trump are impossible to predict.
The province is already seeing economic effects, she said, even though tariffs aren’t in place yet, and it would be “wrong to underestimate” their potential impact.
B.C.’s budget will be presented on March 4, the same day a 30-day pause on Trump’s tariffs on Canadian goods is set to expire.
The minister said the government “considered” doing two budgets because of the looming tariffs but decided against it, opting instead to develop a budget that is “deeply focused” on protecting services.
Bailey said she’s disappointed the government can’t keep the election promise on the rebate, but it would be a $2-billion expense when economic circumstances are incredibly difficult.
“This was a commitment that we very much wanted to make. We made it with the intention of doing it, but the world has changed,” she said.
“It is our responsibility to make sure that we protect the core services for people in British Columbia, that we protect health care, that we protect education, that we protect social services, that we protect safety in our streets.
Bailey said the pause on government hiring would cover everything but “core” services, such as correctional and social workers.
Trump has said he plans a 25 per cent tariff on most Canadian goods, and 10 per cent for energy. The United States also announced a 25 per cent tariff on all foreign aluminum and steel earlier this week that Trump said would be stacked on the Canada-specific tariffs.
Bailey said economic modelling for the tariffs shows B.C. could lose $69 billion in GDP over four years and tens of thousands of jobs.
She said the prospect of Canada’s closest neighbour declaring “economic warfare” before this was “unimaginable.”
“I don’t believe that anyone saw this coming.”
