[Flash Walken]

Originally Posted by CorsiHockeyLeague

I think you've just made my point for me. Your view of "total disaster" appears to encompass "things that would be better for some people if different social and economic policy approaches were preferred by those in power". This is like saying the Federal Conservatives were a disaster if you were below a certain income level. I'm talking about doing massive damage to the provincial economy such that the province as a whole is unequivocally worse off. E.G. the case in ~2000.

I'm not saying that the Liberals have been equally good or bad regardless of who you happen to be in BC. I'm saying that the province isn't driving a hundred miles an hour into the ditch. Compare the present situation with Ontario's.

GDP growth under the BC liberals has stagnated, they have routinely used crown corporations to prop up ill advised tax cuts, and they've sold what were otherwise profitable, revenue generating crown assets for meagre returns.

The province is massively in debt.

The B.C. Liberals will no doubt cite the latest win in the courts as further evidence that they have got Site C past the point of no return.

But that prospect is far from reassuring to taxpayers, given another piece of news this week regarding B.C. Hydro. Moody’s, the international investor service, weighed in Monday with another warning that Hydro’s soaring debt and over-reliance on deferral accounts poses a major risk to the province’s best-in-the-country credit rating.

“The anticipated increase in debt continues to pressure the province’s rating since it raises the contingent liability of British Columbia,” wrote the analysts at Moody’s, even as they reaffirmed a Triple A rating for the 12th consecutive year.

B.C. Hydro’s debt is approaching $20 billion this year, up from about $12 billion when Premier Christy Clark took office six years ago.

The running tally of debt-loading to date covers only a small fraction of the estimated $9 billion cost for Site C and none of the billions more that Hydro expects to spend over the next decade renovating the existing network of dams and transmission lines.

Nor is Hydro in a strong financial position to service and retire all of that debt, as Rob Shaw noted in a Vancouver Sun story Wednesday on the report from Moody’s.

The investor’s service expressed particular concern about Hydro’s practice of deferring present day spending to a burgeoning series of regulatory accounts, to be paid back by ratepayers at some future date.

“Once adjusting net income to take into consideration the extensive use of largely debt financed regulatory asset accounts, B.C. Hydro posts some metrics that are among the weakest of Canadian provincial utilities,” Moody’s said.

Metrics, as in sustainable measures of financial position like revenue, operating costs, ability to cover all those deferral accounts, and service the groaning debt load.

All this is being fixed, say the Liberals. But they’ve been saying that for years while Moody’s continues to ring the alarm bells about Hydro finances.

That last quote from the latest Moody’s report is especially damaging to the governing party.

The Liberals can’t stop boasting about the vaunted Triple A credit rating they’ve brought to B.C. You’ll not hear them admit that under their management, B.C. Hydro has descended to one of the weakest financial positions of any provincial utility in Canada.

Most taxpayers are unaware of the fact that an ever-increasing government debt by the British Columbia government is hidden in the province’s capital budget, according to a Fraser Institute report released June 3.

The study said the true state of B.C.’s finances are misleading because annual interest payments and amortization expenses associated with money borrowed for capital spending for infrastructure including roads, hospitals and schools are recorded in the operating budget.

This spreads the cost over several years, disguising the true state of the government’s finances.

“For example, the B.C. government plans a $184 million surplus in its operating budget for 2014/15,” the Fraser Institute said in a release.

“Despite this projected surplus, government debt is slated to grow by $1.9 billion this year, to a total of $41.1 billion.

“In fact, B.C.’s debt will amount to 17.6% of the provincial economy in 2014/15, up from 12.2% or $24.9 billion in 2008/09.”

This debt, which the Vancouver think tank said is growing “under the radar,” will have serious fiscal repercussions in the future.

https://www.biv.com/article/2014/6/g...by-most-taxpa/

Further, the ideology of these stupid public private partnerships, where the government is unable to take advantage of historically low borrowing rates, has inflated the costs of necessary infrastructure that will haunt this province for the next 50 year or longer.

As economic stewards the BC Liberals have been awful.