The Minister of Finance, Katrine Conroy, delivered the BC Government’s 2024 Budget today, its last before the October provincial election.  As expected, the Budget focuses on housing, affordability, healthcare and climate action. 

The Budget predicts total spending of $89.4B up by 7% over last year and resulting in a $7.9B deficit for 2024/25. The total provincial debt is forecasted to be $123B and real GDP growth is expected to slow to 0.8% in 2024, down from 1% in 2023. BC’s tech sector GDP is now growing 4 to 5 times faster than the economy as a whole and on the jobs side, government’s forecast is that professional, scientific and technical services will be the top private sector employment driver for the province in the next decade.  

BC Tech was pleased to see:

• A reduction in the Employer Health Tax through an exemption threshold increase from $500,000 to $1 million and graduated relief for payrolls between $1 million and $1.5 million – this is very helpful for BC’s tech startup community and other BC small businesses 
• Continued deployment of the Future Ready Skills plan announced in the 2023 Budget with a further $228M to be spent over the next 3 years on skill training and new training seats
• $1.3 billion for new measures to help mitigate and better respond to the impacts of climate emergencies and build a cleaner economy.  BC Tech continues to champion that the clean economy is a smart economy and technology is key to delivering on climate change goals.

BC Tech was concerned to see:

• The removal of animation from the category of productions that qualify for the enhanced production tax credit available for businesses located outside of the Lower Mainland and the Capital Region. Members please contact BC Tech if this will impact you. 

BC Tech will continue to work with the provincial government to advocate for areas of importance to the technology sector.