This $51 billion increase in spending represents total growth of 20.1 per cent in just three years.
debt and deficit
Premier John Horgan’s NDP government campaigned on balanced budgets.
The $10.3 billion deficit the province plans to run this year is just shy of the provincial record of $10.8 billion set last year.
Prime Minister Trudeau is on track to increase per-person federal debt more than any other prime minister in Canadian history who didn’t face a world war or economic recession.
In the last 37 fiscal years, the province has only posted seven budget surpluses.
The province is expected to run a $192 million deficit in 2017-18.
Tucked away in the middle of the country, Manitoba has managed to keep a low profile when it comes to its fiscal situation, but it hasn’t balanced a budget since 2009.
From 2007 and 2015, Alberta contributed $188.6 billion more in taxes to Ottawa than it received in transfers or federal programs.
Over the past 26 years, government-sector debt in Canada has grown to more than $2.5 trillion.