B.C. Finance Minister Brenda Bailey brought the province’s fiscal roadmap to Kelowna on Thursday (June 5), addressing a business luncheon hosted by the Kelowna Chamber of Commerce and Okanagan College.

With a blend of candor and optimism, she outlined the challenges and strategies in the 2025 budget, which was released in March.

“We're in challenging times financially,” Bailey acknowledged. “It's really important that we focus on a couple of things. One is to make sure that government is moving in the direction of deficit reduction and living within our envelope, and we're doing that over a number of different budgets.”

The province projects a $10.9 billion deficit in 2025–26, with taxpayer-supported debt climbing from $97.7 billion to $166.5 billion by 2027–28—a 70 per cent increase.

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