4-year deficit for B.C.: finance minister

B.C.'s finance minister has released more bad news about the stateof the province's coffers he is now warning the government will run a deficit for twice as long as previously promised.

Colin Hansen told reporters Thursday he'll introduce legislation that will allow the B.C. Liberals to post deficits for four years, instead of the two that were pledged during the election campaign.

Hansen said the move is necessary because provincial revenues have shrunk by $2 billion, while costs for social services, forest-fire fighting and other expenses have risen nearly a billion dollars.

Hansen also defended himself against accusations his government hid information about the province's financial health before May's provincial election, saying the February budget was based on the best numbers available at the time and used conservative revenue targets.

"It was only after the election that some of the new revenue numbers started to come in. For example, the first actual numbers that we got on tax filings from the federal Department of Finance came in on the 24th of June," Hansen said.

"That was the first of the actual numbers that made us realize that, even though we had taken a pessimistic approach in February, the actual numbers as they came in were in fact even worse than we had anticipated."

Government has no plan: NDP leader

New Democratic Party Leader Carole James said the B.C. Liberal government does not have a long-term plan to address the province's challenges and is practising "fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants economic planning."

James said if the government had acknowledged the financial problems sooner, it could have taken earlier action with stimulus packages and cutsto government spending.

"So there is no plan in place, the government doesn't have a handle on what's going on, and it's British Columbians who are the ones who will struggle because of this," James said.

She also blasted a recent decision to introduce a harmonized sales tax during the economic downturn.

"We see a government that's taking a hatchet to programs and services, that's bringing in a new tax that's going to make it more difficult for consumers, make it more difficult for small businesses and in fact slow down our economic growth," James said.