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The economic impact of this virus, it is now clear, will be significant, with government revenue shrinking and the cost of delivering essential services escalating. Even before the fiscal year begins, the fundamental forecasts the budget is based upon have shifted.
“We are faced with what looks like an unfolding calamity that, in economic terms, will rival if not exceed what happened during the great financial crisis and global recession of 2008-09,” said economist Jock Finlayson, chief policy officer at the Business Council of British Columbia. “This calls for a different playbook.”