Some of BC Government's numbers Don't Add up for BC's Auditor General

BC's Auditor General Michael Pickup has raised a few flags
on recent financial disclosures by the BC Government

Wednesday provided for a most unusual knuckle rap from British Columbia's Auditor General, with Michael Pickup, making note of some recent number crunching by the Province as part of a financial update from Tuesday.

Listing off the three areas that have caught his auditing eye ...

Mr. Pickup followed up on his information release of Wednesday. with some further notes on his concern through a short video this morning.

The unqualified opinion, which is not a common occurrence in financial circles came following the delivery of a Budget update on Tuesday by Finance Minister Selina Robinson, which noted of a surprise surplus of 1.3 Billion dollars.

As the Government explained it, the additional cash on hand came despite some challenging times of COVID and the government measures during that period, with the provincial economy recovering faster than had previously been forecast. 

Despite unprecedented spending to support people and businesses, B.C. ended the 2021-22 fiscal year with a $1.3-billion surplus as the province’s economy outperformed both public- and private-sector forecasts.

Minister Robinson expanding on the themes as part of the BC Government statement.

“Last year was an incredibly challenging year for British Columbians with the pandemic, coupled with devastating climate disasters. Through the challenges we’ve faced together, we’ve made record investments to ensure targeted supports were available to those who needed them most and to continue building the services and infrastructure people count on.

These numbers show that the actions taken by British Columbians to protect each other and that our unprecedented investments to support people were the right decisions,” 

“While others might have chosen cuts and austerity, our investments in people have helped our economy rebound faster than anyone in the public or private sector predicted. Looking ahead, the Province will keep using this economic strength to support British Columbians, including bringing in new measures in September to help those who are struggling the most with global inflation.”-- BC Finance Minister Selina Robinson

The Auditor General however suggests that the surplus should be significantly higher at $6.5 billion and noted of a few flaws in his mind from the financial overview of the province.  

Publishing his concerns in full on Wednesday.

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The province has pushed back a bit on those findings, noting of its use of deferring restriction contributions is similar to that of other provinces. 

As well as to observe that payments under the First Nations Gaming Sharing partnership is revenue that belongs to the First Nations.

The next act in what could be an interesting period ahead for BC Politics comes this morning with a press conference at 11:30 from the Auditor General to expand on his correspondence and the themes of concern he raised through it.

You can find some more background on the differing opinions from our political blog Darcy McGee and our Victoria Viewpoints feature, which makes note of some of the media coverage of the back and forth of the last few days.

More notes of interest form the Legislature can be found from out archive page.