One of the head honchos in the B.C. Liberal caucus has once again jumped into the limelight in the dying days of the Christy Clark regime.

Finance Minister Mike de Jong has announced a $2.8-billion surplus in 2016-17.

This came just 24 hours before his government is expected to lose a confidence vote in the legislature to the NDP-Green alliance.

"Overall government direct operating debt decreased $3.4 billion, while taxpayer-supported debt, offset by new capital investments, decreased by $1.2 billion," a government news release stated.

B.C. Green Leader Andrew Weaver said in a statement that the timing of the fiscal update is unusual, in that it comes so close to tomorrow's nonconfidence vote.

“Normally, the government would not provide information related to the public accounts until they have been independently audited by the auditor general," he added. "They can only be viewed as draft at this stage; we must wait to see if they hold up to scrutiny."

While Weaver said it's "encouraging" to hear the economy is doing well, "releasing this information out of political calculation is inappropriate”.

Yesterday, de Jong wrote to the speaker, B.C. Liberal MLA Steve Thomson, asking for him to offer an opinion on how a speaker should vote if there's a tie in the legislature. It was de Jong's view that in these instances, the speaker should vote against bills or amendments to bills.

In that instance, the opposition parties accused the B.C. Liberals of playing political games and trying to force an election.