New polling by INNOVATIVE shows that most BCers are not familiar with the budget, but those who are aware are not happy with it.
On Thursday February 22nd, 2024, British Columbia’s provincial NDP government presented their 2024-2025 Budget and Fiscal Plan. INNOVATIVE’s online poll of 504 British Columbians was conducted during the two weeks following the budget. Respondents were asked a series of questions on their awareness of the budget, their reaction to it, and their impression of how it might impact their personal situation, the economy, and matters including education, healthcare, and taxes.
Only 3-in-10 (32%) report having read, seen, or heard anything about the budget. While this is 4 points higher than 2023’s budget, it is lower than many of the previously tracked years. For comparison, awareness of this budget is 8 points lower than Premier Horgan’s last budget in 2022 (40%) and 26 points lower than Premier Clarke’s in 2017 (58%). Awareness of the 2024 budget is highest among BC United identifiers at 49%, compared to 38% of BC NDP identifiers.
Among those who are aware of the budget, satisfaction is low. More than half (52%) are at least somewhat dissatisfied, and 1-in-4 (25%) are very dissatisfied. With a score of -11%, net satisfaction is down 20 from last year, now at the lowest point since Premier Clarke’s last budget.
In addition to low satisfaction, many British Columbians do not have an optimistic outlook on the impact of this budget. Compared to those who feel more positively, more BCers think this budget will negatively impact both their personal situation (net positive -17%) and the economy (net positive -15%), will lead to higher unemployment (net higher +2%), more taxes (net more +42%) and user fees (net more +43%), and leave education worse off (net better -8%). British Columbians only feel optimistic about the health care system being left better off as a result of the budget, but at +5%, this is 25 points lower than last year.
