Below is the BC Chamber of Commerce's statement on the 2025 budget. An analytical breakdown of the budget by the BC Chamber can be found in our Member Portal.

"Fiona Famulak, President and CEO of the BC Chamber of Commerce, released the following statement in response to the release of Budget 2025 by the Government of British Columbia.

“Budget 2025 was unveiled in unprecedented challenging times. The context in which our province and nation are operating has fundamentally changed overnight.

“Today’s budget is sobering for both businesses and British Columbians. It does not deliver the economic incentives, tax changes, programs or policy shifts that are required to kick-start our economy and which we have been advocating for since before the last election.

“The ongoing investments in health care, education, and safety are important priorities that will deliver key services that all British Columbians will benefit from. However, healthy businesses drive a healthy economy, grow jobs, increase investment and generate the revenues government needs to provide public services.

We acknowledge that Budget 2025 has made significant investments in tax credits for film, TV, animation and video game sectors, which will help attract more production and jobs to the province. It also allocates an incremental $172 million in additional support for highway maintenance, BC Transit services and the expansion of the Integrated Marketplace Initiative pilot program designed to facilitate the adoption of low-carbon technologies, increase health and safety, productivity and competitiveness.

While we welcome these announcements, they are a small fraction of the overall provincial budget and not consequential enough to create significant economic impacts.

The continued reliance on significant deficits, approximately $10 billion in each of the next three years, is concerning. Further, the budget does not take into account the expected impacts of US tariffs, which could result in $1.4 to $3.7 billion of loss in revenue annually to the province.

The debt-to-GDP ratio will rise from 22.9% today to 34.4% by the end of the fiscal plan. This will increase the Province’s “interest-bite” by 60.5%, from 4.3 to 6.9 cents per dollar of revenue.”

Source: https://bcchamber.org/news/bc-chamber-commerce-statement-budget-2025