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Things are likely to get worse as stores and services struggle to reopen, the federal government prepares to transition away from personal assistance payments and B.C.’s provincial tax deferral programs end, said Ken Peacock, chief economist at the Business Council of B.C.
“Unless there’s some much more robust job growth than I think there will be in the second half of the year, we’re still going to be in a big economic hole,” he said. “It’s all relative. We’re better off than we were in March and April, but we still have a long way to go.”
The figures released Monday illustrated the extraordinary impact the pandemic had on the provincial treasury in a short period of time.
