Budget 2021, delivered April 20, 2021, focused on providing COVID-19 supports for people and businesses, investing in clean transportation, and continued progress towards reducing GHG emissions.
COVID-19:
Government has budgeted $4.6 billion over the next three years to maintain the Pandemic and Recovery Contingencies to support ongoing measures related to the pandemic ($3.25 billion in 2021/22, $1 billion in 2022/23 and $300 million in 2023/24). This includes ongoing supports for people and businesses, such as the B.C. Recovery Benefit, the Small and Medium Sized Business Recovery Grant and supports to the tourism sector.
Infrastructure:
The BC Budget included several transportation-related items, and specifically mentioned the importance of infrastructure to support growth occurring throughout BC, not just the Lower Mainland. Budget 2021 included further investments in government’s Transportation Investment Plan. Over the next three years, transportation capital investments will total $7.5 billion, in recognition of needs of growing regions, reducing traffic congestion and air pollution, and facilitating the efficient movement of goods.
Infrastructure projects include:
- Pattullo Bridge replacement
- George Massey Crossing
- Highway 1 widening from Langley to Whatcom Road
- Highway 1 widening through Langley between 216th Street and 264th Street
- Highway 1 four-laning between Kamloops and Golden
- Highway 1 Kicking Horse Canyon Phase 4
- Highway 91/17 Nordel upgrades
- Broadway Subway construction
CleanBC
Budget 2021 will provide $130 million to support incentives for zero emissions vehicles, electric charging stations, technological development, and the electrification of school buses, ferries and government fleets.
This builds on comments in the Throne Speech referring to supporting emission reduction in heavy-duty trucking through CleanBC, fostering clean-tech innovation and making it easier to buy electric vehicles. BCTA-administered CleanBC Heavy-duty Vehicle Efficiency Program Incentives will provide funding to promote the purchase of energy-efficient equipment. BCTA launched the CleanBC HDVE Program in October 2019 in partnership with the provincial government, including a fuel-efficiency management course and from 30 to 50 percent in rebates on the cost of approved fuel-efficiency equipment. BCTA estimates the annual cumulative impact of the Program across Year-one and Year-two to have removed over 4,500 passenger vehicles from provincial roads and 8,800 passenger vehicles across North America.
The Budget also noted an additional $506 million in CleanBC investments over the next three years, which brings the total for CleanBC to nearly $2.2 billion since 2019/20.
More information on CleanBC is available here.
Additional Comments from the Business Council of BC
BC’s budget is projecting a $9.7 billion deficit in 2021/2022, slightly higher than last year’s historic deficit of $8.14 billion. The Business Council of BC (BCBC) recognized the extraordinary circumstances the province is facing and applauded the support for families and businesses amid the ongoing and unprecedented COVID-19 shock.
BCBC expressed concerns about the current risks to the economy such as those posed by COVID-19, along with the lack of meaningful tax or regulatory measures to improve BC’s competitiveness. The value of private sector activity, from small businesses to large scale industrial projects, are catalysts for employment of British Columbians and revenues for government. There is little in Budget 2021 to foster sustainable economic growth, increase business investment and develop a more productive, high-wage economy in the medium term.
BCBC highlighted that Budget 2021 does not address the long-standing policy and tax structures that hold back investment and make it harder to advance potential job creating and carbon reducing innovations in B.C.’s high wage commodity and energy export sectors.
BCBC agreed with the decision to steer clear of substantial tax increases, other than the already confirmed rise in the carbon tax. They hoped to see a more detailed and convincing plan to return to balanced budget. However, the Budget failed to address the competitive disadvantage British Columbia’s energy-intensive and trade-exposed industries. The province’s inability to fix weaknesses in its carbon pricing regime will push investment, jobs and tax revenues to other jurisdictions that ironically, have higher carbon-intensity energy and other commodity producing industries than B.C.
Click here to read BCBC’s release.
More details on BC Budget 2021 are available on the provincial government website, and click here for BC Budget 2021 Highlights and here for the Budget 2021 speech.
See the April 19, 2021 Bulletin Article for the action items that the BC Government has highlighted , 2021 BC Throne Speech
