B.C.'s new government should cut income taxes early and fund it with real spending cuts

Tombe puts the price of Lorne Doerkson's signature promise at $2.5 billion a year in lost provincial revenue. That number will hang over the Conservative government from the day it is sworn in, which the Retail Council of Canada expects around mid-November. We think the right answer is not to wait it out. The new government should move early on its income tax cut, and it should pair that cut with a spending review that ends in decisions, not another report.

The Conservatives won 64 of the 93 seats in the legislature, taking over after nine years of NDP rule. Doerkson became premier-designate on October 24, 2026, and has said his caucus of 63 legislators is united to lead the province. The incoming government says it will not raise existing taxes or introduce new ones. A pledge that specific loses force with every month it sits unfulfilled.

A cut with a clear design

The party's plan is to raise the basic personal exemption from $13,216 to $32,000, according to the Conservative Party of BC. Doerkson has described the result as a $1,000-a-year cut to provincial income taxes. People earning above roughly $40,000 a year would receive the full savings, which makes this a broad measure rather than one aimed at a narrow group at the top.

The case for acting now also rests on what the last government did. Eby's 2026 budget suspended annual inflation adjustments to provincial income tax brackets, and reporting on the budget describes it as raising income taxes and expanding the sales tax. A government that has just been elected on a promise of tax relief has a mandate to reverse some of that, and the first budget it controls is the natural place to start.

The deficit objection is the strongest one

The best argument against us is arithmetic. Budget 2026 projected a $13.3-billion deficit for 2026-27, and a $450-million addition brought the figure to $13.8 billion for the fiscal year that began in April. The Globe and Mail's headline put the added amount down to a math error. NDP candidate Spencer Chandra Herbert, who ran in Vancouver-West End, said the Conservative tax cut would blow a $2.5-billion hole in the budget. UBC professor Werner Antweiler has said that cutting taxes and fixing the budget at the same time are contradictory.

They are right that the cut is not free. A tax cut without matching restraint adds to debt that today's taxpayers will carry later. Anyone who says otherwise is not being straight with voters.

But standing still is not free either. Budget 2026 projects declining deficits over its three-year fiscal plan, yet one analysis says that while the deficit trends down after 2026-27, there is no path to balance. The current plan, in other words, does not reach zero with the higher taxes already in place. Waiting for a balanced budget before cutting taxes could mean waiting indefinitely.

The scale matters, too. At $2.5 billion, the cut is under a fifth of the $13.8-billion deficit. That is a gap a determined review of provincial spending can plausibly narrow. Antweiler's warning is a reason to do both jobs deliberately, not a reason to do neither.

Make the review produce choices

Doerkson has promised a panel to conduct a "core review" of the books before presenting his government's plans. It is the right tool, but only if it is built to deliver specific choices. The budget already forecasts the public sector shrinking by 15,000 full-time employees over three years. The new government should say whether it accepts that path, goes further or changes it, and which programs would absorb the savings.

The government should also be candid about who the cut leaves out. People who already pay no provincial income tax would get no direct savings from raising the exemption alone. Voters deserve to hear what, if anything, the government plans for those households within its no-new-taxes commitment.

What we would do first

Legislate the higher basic personal exemption early, with a clear start date. Publish a full costing, using the $2.5-billion figure or the government's own number if it differs. Appoint the core review panel immediately, give it a deadline, and release its findings publicly alongside the first budget that carries the cut.

Relief and restraint should arrive together. Once the government is sworn in, the first thing to watch is whether the costing and the review deadline arrive with it.