B.C.’s Budget 2026 outlines a goal of disciplined spending and improving government efficiency at the expense of a massive group of workers.
Presented Tuesday, the budget says B.C. is committed to “streamlining” government programs, reducing the public sector by 15,000 full-time positions over three years, while protecting essential services.
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The province says it reduced spending by $400 million in the last fiscal year through staffing adjustments, hiring restrictions and reviewing travel, consulting contracts, and business expenses.
Continued expenditure management, it says, will help B.C. save another $3.5 billion over three years.
Additionally, B.C. Finance Minister Brenda Bailey says the province will address public sector growth that has “significantly outpaced economic and general population growth” over the past 10 years.
“Much of this growth can be attributed to improvements in services and delivering on government commitments,” Bailey claimed.
But she says it’s time to return the size of the public sector to a “more sustainable level.”
While reducing the 15,000 positions, the budget promises to protect front-line services and continue to hire in certain sectors like health care and education.
The budget explains, “the public sector includes organizations outside of core government ministries, such as Crown corporations, school districts, post-secondary institutions and health authorities.”
In fall 2025, the BCGEU, a union of thousands of B.C.’s public sector workers, voted to strike over insufficient wages — among other concerns — and forced the closure of liquor stores and certain provincial agencies. The job action lasted more than a month as the province declined to meet the union’s demands.
Among its core government ministries, it says B.C. will reduce 2,500 full-time positions.
The province says it hopes to achieve the 2,500-position reduction mainly through attrition and voluntary departures.
“Additional measures, such as early retirement and voluntary severance incentives, may be used to help support the transition to a smaller, more efficient public service,” said Budget 2026 documents.
Bailey says the government will provide an update on the reduction goals each quarter.
