Article content

VICTORIA — On the day after the New Democrats released the public accounts for their first full year in power, Auditor General Carol Bellringer insisted the bottom line was off by almost $6 billion.

Finance Minister Carole James announced July 19 that she had closed the books for the 2018-19 financial year with a surplus of $1.5 billion. Next day, Bellringer explained why, by her calculation, the surplus was actually $7.2 billion, almost five times as great.

We apologize, but this video has failed to load.

tap here to see other videos from our team. Try refreshing your browser, or Vaughn Palmer: Conservative view of accounting rules a hallmark of B.C. governments Back to video

“What we’re saying is that the financial health of the province is actually better than reported and that the accumulation of (the surplus) is quite significant.”

Quite significant was quite an understatement.

A budget surplus of $7.2 billion would be the largest in provincial history by far.

With that much spendable cash on hand, the New Democrats could double annual funding for housing, income assistance, and child care and still have $3 billion left over. Or they could suspend the carbon tax, the property transfer tax and property taxes for a year and still keep the books in balance.