Standard and Poors Global Ratings has lowered British Columbia's long-term and short-term credit ratings from AA- to A+, and from A-1+ from A-1, respectively.
Moody's also downgraded the province's credit rating from AA1 to AA2.
According to documents obtained by CKNW's Jas Johal, S&P Global Ratings labelled BC's economic outlook "negative," and explained that there was a one-in-three chance that the rating could be lowered again in the next two years "if, in our view, the province's commitment to fiscal consolidation continues to waver, as reflected by persistent and substantial deficit ... compared with those of peers."
"New federal immigration policies and heightened trade uncertainty will weigh on the province's economic growth," S&P Global Ratings continued, "exacerbating the fiscal imbalance between revenues and expenditures."
The agency predicted that BC's deficit "will continue to differentiate [the province] from peers."
Moody's cited "structural deterioration in British Columbia's credit profile" as a result of "a weakening in governance and risk controls."
This is the fourth consecutive credit downgrade BC has experienced under Premier David Eby's tenure. In the decade between 2007 and 2017, on the other hand, the province saw its rating upgraded no less than seven times.
More to come...