C&C #18: A Tale of Two Balance Sheets

B.C. just booked the biggest deficit in its history — $7.7 billion — and called it good news. How? One-time money, and $4 billion of hospitals and roads that simply didn't get built. Same week, Alberta swung from a $9.4-billion deficit forecast to an estimated $3.8-billion surplus. One of those is an economy. The other is an accounting trick.

Episode 18 of ICBA Coffee & Construction — the news that matters to the people who build British Columbia and Alberta, with ICBA's Jordan Bateman. On today's show:

☕ THE BIG ONE: B.C. closes the books on a record $7.7-BILLION deficit — propped up by $2.6 billion in one-time tobacco money and $4 billion of "slipped" capital projects. Across the Rockies, economist Trevor Tombe estimates Alberta is running a $3.8-billion surplus with oil at US$83.

🏠 Ottawa's new housing agency gets its first board chair. The scorecard so far: 17,000 units committed, about 1,900 under construction — while private builders lay off crews.

🖥️ Alberta launches town halls and an information hub for its data centre boom. That's what getting to yes looks like.

🔥 Plus a check-in on Summerland: the fire's growth is slowing, power is coming back, and a staged re-entry is in the works.

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