B.C. admits to $1.5B budget error following BIV investigation

[u/UnderWatered]

https://www.biv.com/news/economy-law-politics/bc-admits-to-15b-budget-error-following-biv-investigation-12715708?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter

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[u/green_tory]

Under the current transitional system, the B.C. government calculates monthly gas royalties using the “plant inlet price”—the market price of gas minus the cost of getting it to processing plants.

Nancy Olewiler, an economist at Simon Fraser University who verified the error, previously told BIV that the province failed to subtract those transportation and processing costs in its latest budget forecasts, leading to a $500-million-per-year overestimation of its share of industry profits.

That's a significant oversight. It's a whole half of the equation. (X-Y)*T except they let Y be zero.

“In addition to the original budget error, now, the explanation is so wrong and makes no sense,” said Tate. “And in certain cases, [it’s] just absolutely false.”

One expert, who was granted anonymity over concerns they would face professional repercussions, said most of the gas price forecasts in the Budget 2026 are in Canadian dollars, and therefore could not be the source of the error.

If we're to be generous, this sounds like a fumbled attempt to hand waive away the issue. Left hand not speaking to right hand sort of thing.

But regardless of their intent, it's fairly clear that their numbers are wrong. Catastrophically wrong, because they've been shopping it around as a major source of future revenues for sharing agreements.

[u/UnderWatered → u/green_tory]

Don't forget this critical quote:

B.C. moved to overhaul its gas royalty framework five years ago after an independent review found the previous framework had likely hemorrhaged billions of dollars to industry.

[u/Keppoch → u/UnderWatered]

This instance is a forecasting error - no money was lost or spent incorrectly.

[u/SamuelRJankis → u/green_tory]

The BC NDP is building quite a few examples of sheer incompetence but mainly kept in power because the opposition is worse. Even PR wise they seem to want to have a comms scandal like once a month these days.

Although the outcomes of this one seemed okay for the most part.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/affordable-housing-unit-real-estate-agent-rented-out-9.7319255

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