Methane Gas

BC Government hiding $2 bn liability

My graphic illustrations of the decline in BC’s natural gas revenues – despite 2013 election promises of up to $100 billion in revenues related to LNG – should be read in conjunction with the article by Marc Lee, senior economist with the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives.

BC’s natural gas giveaway: Production soars, revenues plummet

rights-and-royalties

00gas-revs

Mr. Lee’s work is excellent but he missed the $1.932 billion owed to gas producers as credits that can be deducted from future royalty payments. Missing the unrecorded liability is exactly what BC Liberals and their media pals want you to do.

The Province argues that the liability for credits need not be recorded because there is no certainty they will be used. But, really. In the last three years alone, $1.785 billion in credits have been used. There is near certainty the $1.932 billion owing will be used to reduce royalties in future years.

One trusted accounting text says this about recording or not recording liabilities:

GAAP requires businesses to classify contingent liabilities as either probable, reasonably possible or remote. Only the most probable contingent liability is recognized as a liability on financial statements, whereas reasonably possible contingent liabilities are only mentioned via footnotes within financial reports until their outcome is realized.

It is worth noting that the liabilities for producers’ credits were completely hidden until FY 2012 when then Auditor General Doyle insisted that $702 million (adjusted later to $774 million) be mentioned in footnotes.

I argue the ten year record shows these credits to producers are more than “reasonably possible contingent liabilities.”


 

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3 replies »

  1. An almost $7 billion decline from one five year period to another. Sure looks like promoting Christy Clark to the Premier’s chair was a great “Quick-Win” strategy for Gwyn Morgan and the natural gas industry.

    Had Stephen Harper not cooperated by providing a very comfortable landing place in London, Gordon Campbell might not have cleared the way for Clark.

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  2. As you have stated before, BC is almost $200 billion in debt, with over $140 billion accumulated by the BC Liberals. So much for business acumen.

    What is now afflicting BC is a major case of penis/boob envy, where every Premier wants to squander billions of dollars on bigger bridges; more expensive subways, more hidden subsidies and graft for political friends.

    For too long the mainstream media has ignored the evil that inflicts this land like dead and forgotten children with the Children’s Ministry, billion squandered on gold plated rapid transit; replacing sound bridges and tunnels while ignoring death trap bridges and highways; and the list goes on and on.

    Now we come to deceptive book keeping and not a peep from the MSM, including BS Baldry and Vague Palmer.

    The Premier has now resorted to Trump style “fake or alternative facts, that would make even herr Goebbels blush.

    It is not just the Premier that needs changing, or the BC Liberals and their ship load of con artists, foot pads and slick willies, rather it is how BC is governed itself.

    As a Mr. Trump is finding out, the Premier is not above the law.

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  3. The Liberals have found an inexpensive way to hide the bad news. They just delete it.

    Al Capone wasn’t jailed for his crimes … he was jailed for income tax evasion. It’s time to open the books – of Crown Corporations.

    Voters will have their say on May 9th. Defeat and delete.

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