VICTORIA, B.C.: The Conservative Official Opposition is calling on the NDP to go back to the drawing board with its budget after Moody’s issued a double downgrade to British Columbia’s Baseline Credit Assessment, marking the fifth downgrade in four years from the world’s leading bond rating agencies.

“Bond rating agencies are giving the NDP budget the equivalent of an F,” said Conservative Interim Leader Trevor Halford. “The government needs to take this seriously, go back to drawing board, and table a budget that will restore confidence in world financial markets. This budget is putting B.C.’s financial future at risk.”

Halford noted that Moody’s is now forecasting that net debt will increase to $178.5 billion in the current fiscal year, or 208.7 per cent of the province’s total revenue, and $230 billion by 2028–29, or 250.7 per cent of total revenue.

Moody’s says the effect of recent NDP budgets is “shifting British Columbia from having one of the lowest debt burdens to having one of the highest among regional peers.”

The agency also projects interest costs will surge 68 per cent by 2028–29 to 7.9 percent of provincial revenue, up from 4.7 per cent last year, already worse than the government’s own projection for next year made just last month.

The credit rating agency also warns that “an inability to adjust to further negative pressure would accelerate the increase in leverage and reduction in debt affordability beyond our current forecasts.”

“B.C. is going broke,” said Halford. “That’s the message from the financial markets. The NDP is borrowing money at higher and higher interest rates, just to pay the interest on the debt that’s piling up.”

“It’s time for a new plan.”

“If the NDP can’t see the writing on the wall, they need to get out of the way. Conservatives have a plan to kickstart growth, create jobs, and get the budget moving back into balance.”

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