Budget 2026 was announced on Tuesday and has sparked significant backlash over contentious cuts to services.
Not only will the fiscal plan for the next year of provincial spending see an increase in taxes to the lowest income BC residents, but approximately 15,000 public sector jobs are also on the chopping block.
Furthermore, the Province is changing their funding for child care, abandoning the popular $10-a-day model and BC’s debt is predicted to increase from $154 billion to $235 billion over the next three years.
While these matters will impact many Victoria residents, two local organizations are speaking out about how the budget will affect small businesses and transit in the region.
Greater Victoria Chamber of Commerce
The Greater Victoria Chamber of Commerce says that Budget 2026 reflects the province’s difficult fiscal reality, but also raises some red flags.
They are concerned that business confidence, downtown recovery and long-term economic growth in the region were not taken into consideration while creating the budget.
The Chamber says government spending needs to be controlled as Budget 2026 forecasts a deficit of $13.3 billion for the fiscal year.
Despite this sentiment, the Chamber noted that a strong private sector is crucial for economic growth, and thus needs to be nurtured.
“You can’t cut your way out of a deficit,” said John Wilson, President & CEO of the Greater Victoria Chamber of Commerce.
“A strong business environment and a vibrant downtown are essential to creating jobs, generating tax revenue, and funding the public services people rely on.”
One significant impact that will be felt by some businesses in Victoria is the announcement that PST will now impact certain professional services at the going rate of 7%.
Services impacted in this expansion include accounting, architectural, engineering and geoscience, security, private investigation, rental property management, strata management and more.
The Chamber says that this is a time when businesses are desperate for support and these new taxes will represent $550 million in the form of PST changes.
Rather than put more burden on small businesses and professionals, the Chamber would rather see the Province implement tax relief for small businesses, increased safety for the downtown core, better access to mental health and addictions treatment and initiatives to bring people downtown.
“When downtown is strong, businesses invest, people are employed and government revenues are stronger,” said Wilson.
“When downtown struggles, the ripple effects are felt across Greater Victoria.”
Better Transit YYJ
Better Transit YYJ is an advocacy group for improved transportation services in the Victoria region and they too were left feeling unsatisfied with Budget 2026.
The organization is warning that cuts to BC Transit funding could set up a disastrous scenario for transit services across the province.
In Budget 2025, the organization says that BC Transit was promised an additional 158,000 service hours for 2026 and 55,000 hours in 2027.
However, in Budget 2026 those promises have been cut down to a single expansion of 127,000 hours in 2026, with no expansion the following year.
This will impact service because BC Transit uses projections from past years to plan for the upcoming fiscal year’s service plan and budget, causing BC Transit to cut approximately 30,000 service hours going forward.
“We fall behind by standing still,” said Sam Holland, chair of Better Transit YYJ.
“Every year, we need at least a small amount of additional hours to make up for increasing traffic. Without that funding, transit gets slower, less reliable, and less frequent, and we lose riders.”
The organization asserts that when transit gets worse, people will choose other ways of getting around, lowering fare revenue.
This may set up a scenario where less revenue causes further service cuts, which then lowers fare revenue even more, leading to more service cuts.
“In regions dependent on fare revenue, including Victoria, we are looking at serious fiscal cliffs as we lose riders,” said Holland.
“These cuts set up a situation where each local transit commission will have to make a decision in the coming years— property tax hikes, or cuts to service.”
Better Transit YYJ and the Greater Victoria Chamber of Commerce are just two of many organizations that have spoken out about the looming impacts of Budget 2026.
Both the official Opposition, the BC Conservatives, and the BC Green Party have also criticized the plan along with environmental groups and First Nations.
