Gwen and I raised three adult children in North Vancouver. Each lives in this community, as do our seven grandchildren. Before retirement, I worked in accounting and small business management. Since 2009, I have published commentary about public issues at IN-SIGHTS.CA.
Simple financial analysis demonstrates that management of BC Hydro during recent years was thoroughly incompetent. Largely, that is explained by policies and people imposed by BC Liberals on a utility that had served the public proficiently for more than four decades…
Under BC Liberals, BC Hydro stopped using regulatory accounts for rate smoothing and used them instead to hide the true state of the utility’s financial condition.
In the fiscal years 2016 and 2017, natural gas royalty payments totalled $291 million. However, credits owed producers increased $748 million so, if the province bothered to record these obligations as was recommended by the Office of the Auditor General, the royalty account had a two-year deficit of $457 million. A decade ago, two fiscal years — 2006 and 2007 — produced gas royalty payments of $3.7 billion (2017 dollars) from substantially less production.
If we had experienced more truthfulness from BC Hydro, the province would not be spending billions on Site C. Not only is the project an option more expensive than alternatives, domestic demand does not support the addition of any new sources of power beyond those involving upgrades of existing generating facilities.
The decision to proceed with Site C was not based on need for power by BC consumers. Demand is this province has been more or less unchanged since 2005… While the NDP has done much to change the direction of government in BC, they’ve been paralyzed when it comes energy policies. BC Hydro has been a troubled organization for years and it will not be rescued by timid actions. That’s bad news for every BC business and ever resident who consumes electricity.
There is a small group of people — BC Liberals and friends — who viewed BC Hydro as a giant faucet for disbursement of cash. It is a costly reality for consumers of electricity in British Columbia…
Removing the impact of gas tax and GST, our American neighbours pay as much as 38¢ a litre less. That amounts to $23 for a 60 litre fill-up. Based on average consumption, we suffer about $1,000 a year in excess charges for each vehicle. It appears that industry collusion and lack of competition are main factors.
Slowing of growth in carbon emissions falls well short of the sharp drop in carbon emissions thought necessary to achieve Paris climate goals. We need a far more decisive break from the past…
Dave Melrose, a reader who is in the solar installation business, commented on my previous article Death knell for net metering. He worries that people could be misinformed because I didn’t make clear that self-generation of electricity remains viable for homeowners. People tell me a 15-year payback on solar installations is common, even without selling excess power to the utility. However, having studied the financial statements of BC Hydro, I know that huge rate increases are coming. These will shorten the solar system payback considerably…
The coming shifts in power distribution is referred to as the democratization of energy. It is resisted at BC Hydro and other utilities but it is inevitable. Failure to adapt will cost us billions…
Residents of British Columbia understand financial pain that follows when officeholders subvert public utilities to gain political advantage and reward special interests. BC Liberals aimed to privatize public assets and services. When it could not be achieved overtly, it was done by stealth. After inevitable failures and disasters, legislators concealed them by employing a broad misinformation strategy. BC’s success in duping the public on utility matters encouraged Ontario Liberals to adopt accounting fakery in their own province…
BC Hydro fears the amount of power fed to the grid by participants in net metering will expand substantially. As a result, this week the utility announced they intend to change the program so that it is not available to customers generating power beyond their own energy needs…
It’s easy to understand why BC Hydro argued that pushing ahead with Site C was the preferred option. A change in course would require directors and executives to admit their past decisions were colossal mistakes. Blunders that cost billions don’t help job security and do not enhance resumes…
Politicians demand ordinary citizens pay increasing amounts of carbon tax — supposedly to reduce fossil fuel consumption — while at the same time they dish out billions of dollars in subsidies to ensure gas companies produce more fossil fuels.
Norway sets aside proceeds from oil and gas production and now has an investment fund worth 8,140 billion NOK, which is about $1.3 trillion Canadian. Given the present population, that’s more than $250,000 for every man, woman and child.
Postmedia’s Colby Cosh demonstrates the truth of Jefferson’s quote, “The man who reads nothing at all is better educated than the man who reads nothing but newspapers.”
This weekend, Kinder Morgan Canada Limited (KML) suspended all “non-essential activities and related spending” on its Trans Mountain pipeline expansion. They blamed “continued actions in opposition to the project.” That’s only part of the story…
A collection of words that caught my attention. Some are serious; some are bemusing; all are worthy of consideration.
Merv Adey was a passionate British Columbian and a regular and welcome fixture in social media. Following his passing in 2017, a group of his friends sponsored a fellowship in his name to promote journalistic excellence and insightful debate on electoral reform.
A series of provincial administrations and the politicians and bureaucrats we-the-people employ have consistently lied to us by both commission and omission. By wilful blindness, they have put and are putting lives at risk…
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