Since 2002, successive Liberal governments have gradually turned B.C. Hydro into a holding tank of public debt. It has reached the point that the Clark government doesn't dare permit the B.C. Utilities Commission (or, for that matter, any other independent institution) anywhere near B.C. Hydro. To do so would be to invite public scrutiny of a decade of debt caused by unprecedented political interference in the financial affairs of a public utility.
It was just a little over a year ago since the Liberals intervened when the utilities commission decided to hold two weeks of public hearings regarding a proposed three-year 30 per cent hydro rate increase.
Knowing a public hearing would very likely expose the extent of government intervention in the utility's finances, minister of the day Rich Coleman directed the commission to "negotiate" an increase without hearings.
When the commission balked, the Clark government arbitrarily ordered it to approve an increase of 17 per cent over three years.
Get ready for an instant replay. According to information revealed last week, starting in 2014 B.C. Hydro says it needs a rate increase of 41.5 per cent over the next six years.
Newbie Minister Bill Bennett is already signalling the government's intention to once again sideline the utilities commission and, not so coincidentally, avoid any public hearing. His attempt to spin this move by asserting the commission would be unable to recommend a rate increase that would make the people of B.C. "happy" is nothing more than an exercise in political deceit.
None of us doubts there will be a rate increase. Bennett is preparing us for that inevitability, just as he is not-so-subtly indicating it will not be as much as B.C. Hydro says it needs.
He is expecting, of course, that many of us will be relieved (but not necessarily happy, I suspect) that it's less. And the Liberal government will have once again dodged the bullet.
But the government can't delay the inevitable forever. Just as sure as hydro rates will continue to rise, the day of reckoning cannot be held off forever.
Bill Brassington, via email
