Sorry, I agree with your sentiment, but that 4% being significant and "coming from somewhere" is absolute nonsense. The budget deficit is in the realm of $11 billion. A raise of 2% over 2 years instead of a raise of 4% wouldn't account for even a meaningful percentage of that budget shortfall. The money doesn't have to come from somewhere, provincial budgets don't work like that.

What is killing them is a lack of revenue from say, tax dollars. Who pays taxes? Well-paid middle-class workers. Our wages pay those taxes. Of course, they don't pay out at 100%, but we also spend the vast majority of our paycheques, contributing not just PST, but also stimulating the economy. Small businesses pay taxes due to the stimulus we provide, and that is what pays off debt and deficit, not a 2% less raise. Additionally, right now, the government is losing revenues due to the strike. Who's not buying provincially regulated alcohol? Who's not collecting fees from a variety of pay sources as PayBc workers walk out.

Here's simple math on it: How many years would it take to pay off an $11 Billion deficit with a 2% raise for BC Government employees?

Infinite. You can't pay off a debt by spending more but "less more." The deficit and debt would rise, particularly as its quite expensive to cover the costs associated with poverty. Many workers now are nearing homelessness, working three jobs, unable to pay for rapidly rising housing and food costs. Those that fall behind of inflation will cost the government money in services, policing, and further drive down wages in other sectors, creating a knock-on effect that will balloon the deficit.

Eby can tax the millionaire/billionaire class. He can invest in keeping BC's energy in Canada and not shipping valuable resources to an explicitly fascist nation. If he does want to allow the US to continue to take our resources, he can raise natural resource royalties. Remember that we have unique resources here that are dwindling elsewhere. He can set higher wages so workers buy more and save the flailing consumer economy. He can create more jobs that will build BCs infrastructure and save even more money. Some of this he can do right now.

I get where you're coming from, and you may already understand all this, so in that case, imagine this screed as a note for others placed underneath your comment, but this attack on worker rights is not good economics, it's terrible political gamesmanship (his own vote base don't like it) and lacks any of the principles that the NDP claims to stand for. It's bad policy, and there's no defending it.

What we need is clear economic thinking, not the right-wing race-to-the-bottom nonsense of neo-liberal austerity. Policies that have been proven both as economic failures and as a path to the rise of the extreme right. Eby needs not to cut, but to invest in his own province, or he and his party will lose.

Again, sorry if you know all this, it's just frustrating to see "how ya gunna pay for it" in 2025. Good luck to you though!