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VICTORIA — Finance Minister Carole James is scrambling behind the scenes to keep B.C.’s budget from slipping into the red.

But some New Democrat supporters must be wondering if it’s even worth the hassle, in light of the recent federal election.

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Voters there issued a collective shrug to the idea of years of government deficits, as long as the money would ease the cost pressures they are facing on all sides, from housing affordability to child care and health care.

Parties that had no plans to curtail deficit spending captured more than 55 per cent of the popular vote collectively. And only three per cent of uncommitted voters in an Angus Reid poll before voting day last month said debt and deficits were a top issue.

But back in B.C., James and the New Democrat government are still scrounging for every penny to keep their budget in the black.

The province’s second quarter financial results, to be released later this month, are expected to show James’s razor-thin $179-million surplus forecast under siege by a softening economy, slowing housing market, collapsing forestry sector and the roaring financial dumpster fire that is the Insurance Corp of B.C.