The province’s budget deficit for the 2009/10 fiscal year is $73 million higher than the government reported, according to B.C. Auditor General John Doyle.
The budget watchdog expects B.C.’s deficit to be $1.85 billion instead of the $1.77 billion Finance Minister Colin Hansen forecast in early July.
“Audit reservations should not be taken lightly,” Doyle said. “The three reservations which caused me to qualify my opinion are the same ones identified in last year’s audit opinion.”
Two of Doyle’s three reservations relate to credits for oil and gas producers, while the third relates to the improper consolidation of the Transportation Investment Corp., the Crown corporation responsible for constructing and managing the new Port Mann Bridge.
Doyle’s announcement came as he released his annual report on the provincial government’s public accounts.
After the May 2009 provincial election, Hansen announced B.C. was going to have $2.8 billion shortfall in the 2009/10 fiscal year. That was up from the $495 million deficit that he said he expected during the election campaign.
Hansen revised that forecast to $1.77 billion in July.