Deficits Matter — They Steal Tomorrow
There’s a comforting story governments like to tell when money gets tight: Don’t worry. It’s not “spending,” it’s “investing.” The deficit is just a temporary bridge. The debt is manageable. Interest rates are low. Everything will work out.
Here’s the problem: deficits aren’t free. They are a decision to consume tomorrow’s capacity—and then send the bill to people who didn’t vote for it yet.
Let’s put B.C.’s current situation into plain language with three numbers.
1) The deficit is not a theory anymore — it’s the operating reality
B.C. ran a surplus of about $956 million in 2022/23—essentially balanced in everyday terms.
Then the province posted a $5.035B deficit in 2023/24 and a $7.347B deficit in 2024/25.
For 2025/26, the province’s Second Quarterly Report forecasts a deficit of $11.187B.
That’s not a “one-time blip.” That’s a pattern.
2) Debt is just deficits that didn’t go away
In 2022/23, total provincial debt was around $89.4B (as reported in the Public Accounts highlights for that year).
By the province’s own 2025/26 forecast, total provincial debt is about $155.086B.
That’s roughly $65B+ added in just a few fiscal years.
3) Interest is the “tax” you pay for past overspending
We talk endlessly about new programs and shiny announcements. But debt has a quiet, brutal feature: it charges rent.
In the 2025/26 Second Quarterly Report, debt servicing is forecast at $5.092B for the year.
That’s about:
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$14 million per day
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$580,000 per hour
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$9,700 per minute
And what do taxpayers get for that $5.1B?
No new hospital wing. No extra ambulance on the road. No more doctors trained. No bridge repaired.
It’s simply the cost of carrying yesterday.
Why this matters (even if you like the programs being funded)
When governments normalize deficits, they normalize three things:
A) Crowding out core services
Every billion that goes to interest is a billion that can’t go to frontline delivery without raising taxes or cutting something else. In plain English: the debt becomes a silent competitor to healthcare, public safety, education, and basic infrastructure.
B) Fragility
Deficits remove your ability to respond to the next shock—recession, wildfire season, flooding, a trade hit, a public health spike. A government living on borrowed money is like a household with maxed-out credit: one surprise bill and the whole plan collapses.
C) A moral shift: “tomorrow will pay” becomes policy
Deficits are easy because the pain is delayed. The voters who get the benefit are present. The people who get the bill are often too young to vote—or not born yet.
That’s not compassion. That’s intergenerational theft dressed up as good intentions.
The line we need to draw
This isn’t about left or right. It’s about basic arithmetic and basic honesty.
If something is worth doing, we should be able to answer:
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What are we stopping, cutting, or delaying to pay for it?
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What taxes are we raising—or what savings are we banking—to fund it?
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If we’re borrowing, what is the full interest cost, and for how long?
If government can’t answer those questions clearly, then the project isn’t “funded.”
It’s financed—which is a fancy word for we don’t have the money.
A simple, grown-up standard for B.C.
B.C. needs a fiscal rule that citizens can understand without a finance degree:
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No new permanent programs funded by temporary borrowing.
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No “nice-to-have” expansions until the operating budget is balanced.
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A hard cap on operating spending growth (inflation + population is a reasonable starting point).
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A public, line-by-line “core services first” review that names what stops when something new starts.
Not because government should be small.
Because government should be solvent.
Final Thought
Deficits are political candy: sweet today, rotten tomorrow.
Debt is not just a number. It’s a claim on the future—your future, your kids’ future, your community’s future.
And interest? Interest is the proof that reality still exists.
Deficits matter. They steal tomorrow.
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