Here’s a look at the 2024 B.C. budget, by the numbers

VICTORIA – British Columbia Finance Minister Katrine Conroy has delivered an election-year budget that includes benefits for families and businesses as well as an increased deficit. Here are some of its key numbers and estimates:

$7.9 billion: 2024/2025 deficit

34 per cent: Deficit increase

0.8 per cent: 2024 real GDP growth

$445: Average BC Family Benefit bonus

$270 million: Three-year Increase in cancer spending

$68 million: Cost of providing free in-vitro fertilization over three years

$1 million: New payroll threshold for Employers Health Tax, up from $500,000

50,490: Record number of housing starts in 2023

10,000: Jobs per year over the next decade to boost the electricity grid

$123 billion: Total provincial debt

89 per cent: Increase in three-year taxpayer-funded capital spending, versus previous three years

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 22, 2024.