THE NDP said on Tuesday that Finance Minister Carole James forecast a $12.5 billion deficit for the fiscal year 2020-21, which is a projection based on actual revenues and expenditures up to this point, as well as anticipated revenue and expenditures between now and the end of the fiscal year.

In BC Liberal Leader Andrew Wilkinson’s brief response to the fiscal update, he revealed that he believes the projected deficit is three times bigger than it actually is:

“Yeah I think we all know we’ve been in this for four months now, and have a $12.5 billion deficit. If you spread that out over a year, that’s a $37.5 billion deficit. So we’re in a very tight spot.” (Video)

Wilkinson thinks the $12.5 billion was only for four months, so he multiplied the number by three.

The NDP pointed out that James has provided multiple mid-year fiscal updates to the annualized budget forecast during Wilkinson’s time as leader. (Example A, B, C, D)

The NDP added: “According to Wilkinson’s confused math, BC would be facing a $37.5 billion deficit on a $60 billion budget.”