Taxpayers are in for a rough ride with the Surrey-Langley SkyTrain extension.
When the 16-kilometre SkyTrain extension was announced in January 2020, it was supposed to cost around $4 billion. Fast forward to August 2024 and the cost has ballooned to $6 billion.
That’s $2 billion over budget.
Time and time again, Premier David Eby’s government has shown an inability to manage major capital projects, leaving taxpayers on the hook for billions in cost overruns.
The Surrey-Langley SkyTrain extension is just the latest example of massive cost overruns on government capital projects in B.C.
Also in Surrey, the planned hospital development is more than $1 billion over budget. In 2022, government pegged the cost of that project at $1.7 billion, which has since ballooned to $2.9 billion. Hospitals in Richmond and Cowichan are both also more than $1 billion over budget.
It’s obvious this government can’t manage capital spending, because just about every major project overseen by the province is massively over budget.
The cost overruns for the Surrey-Langley SkyTrain extension are a real problem for taxpayers.
The $2-billion cost overrun works out to $400 per British Columbian. The total cost of the project adds up to $1,200 per person. It’s hard to justify $400 per person cost overruns when more British Columbians than ever are lining up at food banks to feed their families.
A recent Statistics Canada survey suggests nearly one in four Canadians are “somewhat” or “very likely” to get their food from community organizations over the next six months. When normal British Columbians aren’t able to afford food, they certainly can’t afford Eby’s bad budgeting.
The $2-billion cost overrun is about as much money as the government spends on the Ministry of Children and Family Development and twice as much as it collects in the motor fuels tax.
Looking at the whole project, $6 billion is roughly the same amount of money the province takes in property and carbon taxes combined.
For every metre of track laid for the extension, taxpayers will be on the hook for $375,000.
The Eby government was quick to blame “rising inflation” for the cost overruns. Let’s test that argument.
According to the Bank of Canada’s inflation calculator, inflation rose by 18.15 per cent from 2020-24. If inflation were to blame, the cost of the project would now be $4.7 billion. That’s a far cry from the $6 billion figure presented by the government.
Regardless, the provincial government knows inflation is a factor that impacts the cost of capital projects, which means the Eby government should be factoring it into budgets.
Another issue the government points to is “labour market challenges.”
The NDP’s so-called Community Benefits Agreement excludes non-union workers from working on government contracts. That freezes out 85 per cent of construction workers in B.C. who aren’t in unions. It also adds up to 30 per cent to the cost of government builds, according to the B.C. Chamber of Commerce and construction industry experts like the Independent Contractors and Businesses Association.
British Columbians can’t afford massive cost overruns from our provincial government. Since the NDP has been in power, it’s slapped British Columbians with 32 new or increased taxes. At the same time, the province’s debt exploded from $70 billion to $123 billion.
Big debt leads to big interest costs. The interest alone on the B.C. government’s debt is costing taxpayers $4.3 billion this year. Fast forward to 2026 and that interest will cost us $5.9 billion.
To get our finances in order, the government needs to stick to the budgets it creates.
For every dollar spent on cost overruns, there’s a taxpayer wondering why their wallet is being treated like a bottomless well. It's long past-time we demand better from our politicians.
Carson Binda is the B.C. Director for the Canadian Taxpayers Federation.
