Financial minister rethinking promise on $495M deficit

The B.C. Liberals appear to be backing down from a commitment Premier Gordon Campbell made during the general election campaign about government deficit figures.

Campbell had said that the province's deficit would be no more than $495 million, as predicted in the February provincial budget.

"We may not have quite as much contingency but, I can tell you this: the deficit for 2009/10 will be $495 million," he said on April 23 after a radio debate.

Finance Minister Colin Hansen said Monday he "just can't" guarantee the figures will be honoured, although they are still his expectation.

"I think, as of basically the middle of the election campaign, given what we knew about revenue projections at that time, that was a safe assumption," Hansen said in Victoria after attending an earlier meeting of finance ministers at Meech Lake, near Ottawa.

"I just can't … I don't have the magic crystal ball that's going to tell me what we're looking at a couple of months from now when we lock in revenue figures for the new budget," he said.

In February, Hansen said B.C. would run a deficit budget in the next two fiscal years because of deterioration in world economics.

He blamed falling prices and shrinking markets for lumber and natural gas, two of the largest exports for the province, for the decline in provincial revenues.