The analysis looked at the highest single-year per-person spending by B.C. premiers between the years 1965 and 2021. The highest recorded per-person spending came under Horgan in 2021 at $13,250. Excluding COVID-related spending, per-person spending ($12,533) in 2021 was still the highest on record.
The report also said that B.C.’s second-highest year of per-person spending ($13,199) also occurred under the Horgan government in 2020. Non-COVID-related spending was $11,188 per person that year.
Overall, Horgan increased per-person program spending by 6.1 percent over his tenure, higher than his two predecessors, Gordon Campbell (1.4 percent) and Christy Clark, who recorded an average annual decline of 0.7 percent, the study said.
Per-person program spending is an effective way of measuring a government’s fiscal policy, according to Tegan Hill, senior economist with the Fraser Institute and author of the study.
“It will be important to see how per-person inflation-adjusted spending develops moving forward.”
The province’s per-person spending increased from $3,137 (in 2021 inflation-adjusted dollars) to $13,250 between 1965 and 2021.
“Put simply, BC’s provincial government per-person spending increased substantially over the 55-year period,” the study reads.
Another metric that the study looked at was the average annual increase in per-person spending during each premier’s tenure. David Barrett, who served as premier from 1972 to 1975, had the highest average annual increase of 15 percent, followed by Rita Johnston, who was premier for just over seven months in 1991, with a 7.8 percent increase.
Horgan ranked fourth with a 6.1 percent average annual increase in per-person spending, closely behind W.A.C. Bennett, who had an annual change in per-person spending of 6.2 percent.
All other premiers recorded annual increases in per-person spending below 2.5 percent, the study said.
