VANCOUVER (NEWS1130) – British Columbians are in a lot of debt and we’re not saving enough money.
    
BC’s new finance minister is making that blunt assessment as he tries to balance the provincial budget ahead of the May 2013 election.
    
BC’s rather dismal first quarterly budget update shows projected natural gas revenues plunging and our deficit rising to more than $1 billion.
    
Mike de Jong notes retail activity is up over last year.

“Here’s what troubles me about this…when you look beyond these figures- and I think you have to- you look at debt load for families and rates of savings, in the past number of years they have been headed in the wrong direction,” he says.

Studies show British Columbians have the highest non-mortgage debt in the country. A report by TransUnion finds the average BC consumer owes almost $38,000.
    
de Jong says the government will see what it can do to encourage people to save more.

“I have asked officials within the finance ministry to examine in detail the trend as it relates to rates of savings and debt load, because affordability for families is important,” he says.  “And to whatever extent we can create incentives to address those two trends, I would like to do so, so that work will be undertaken going forward.”
    
de Jong says he doesn’t think we can build an economic recovery on unsustainable government spending or unsustainable family debt levels.