Electricity System Operator Loses $80 Million

Guess Who will pay?

Just when we thought there might be a bit of relief from the high cost of hydro comes news that in the Government’s public accounts for 2015-16, a previously unnoticed “actuarial loss and past service costs” of just over $80 million has occurred.

In the private sector, if a financial mistake is made, the company basically has to “eat” the costs of the error and recover the best they can.  Why is it with Government oversight of such magnitude the attitude seems to be, oops, we made a mistake and we’ll have to recoup the lost money through the ratepayers?  Even though the Government has gone on record to say taxpayers won’t be on the hook for the lost money, where exactly will it come from?  Are there other ways the Government can come up  with $80 million beside getting it from the taxpayers?

Imagine if you somehow lost $80 million from your company’s bottom line?

Instead of outrage, the story barely gets any notice as we’ve become used to this level of Government incompetence occurring on a regular basis and basically have resigned ourselves to the fact that we just have to pay for other people’s screw-ups and mismanagement when it comes to running the province’s or country’s business.

My question is, what has happened to the lost $80 million that came from ratepayers to begin with?  Shouldn’t we now be expecting not to have to pay for the next $80 worth of electricity until they have recovered OUR lost money?  This might make them be a little more careful with our dollars, but if there are little to no consequences for these types of things happening, they will simply continue to happen.