Trump tariff shadow looms over economy on eve of B.C. budget [Video]

British Columbia’s government has had plenty of early warning about the economic earthquake — epicentre, Washington, D.C. — that could rock the province on the same day Finance Minister Brenda Bailey delivers her first budget in Victoria.

While the exact magnitude remains uncertain, experts and economists say the impact of U.S. President Donald Trump’s threatened tariffs will have Bailey handing down one of the most consequential budgets for the province in recent memory on Tuesday.

It’s the same day that Trump has said he will impose sweeping tariffs on Canadian exports, in what Premier David Eby has called a “declaration of economic war.”

The province has already cancelled a promised $1,000 grocery rebate and frozen some public-sector hiring as it braces for a trade war against what Eby called an “outsized and significantly more powerful foe.”

Eby has admitted that the frequent and unpredictable threats from the White House have …