B.C. Government Is Subsidizing Climate Change

In 2020-21, BC’s NDP-led government spent $1.3 billion on fossil fuel subsidies — 8.3 percent more than the previous year — and they are now more than double what they were when Premier Horgan’s NDP took power.

Rather than decrease over time, these subsidies are estimated to surpass $1.8 billion in 2023-24—more than triple what the B.C. Liberals spent in 2016-17.

The largest single source of this increase is the Deep Well Royalty Program, a tax loophole for fracking operators, which is projected to cost taxpayers $421 million this year. The outstanding liability fracking companies have amassed through unused Deep Well Royalty Credits has grown to $3.1 billion.

In BC, fossil fuel subsidies include provincial tax exemptions, royalty reductions and credits, and direct investments in infrastructure and technology–and they have grown significantly since the BC NDP took over from the Liberals in 2017. Indeed, BC is second only to Alberta in the generosity of subsidies it gives to the fossil fuel industry, mostly to expand the production and export of fracked liquified natural gas (LNG), a dirty fuel source that is both an economic and a climate disaster.