The decision by the provincial government to halve the rate increase sought by B.C. Hydro is not only irresponsible, it's a rerun of the behaviour the Liberals rightly denounced an NDP government for in the 1990s.
The motives are transparent enough - nobody likes bigger bills in their mailbox and a government already reeling from the HST debacle is eager to shield voters from them.
But pretending these costs don't exist doesn't make them go away.
It's all well and good to tell Hydro to find cost efficiencies and lay off a thousand people, but one of the biggest savings, the euphemistically phrased "deferral of capital expenditures," is actually no savings at all. It's simply kicking those costs down the road to future ratepayers - ourselves.
Not many British Columbians realize what a sorry state our electrical grid is in. Unlike roads or ferries, it's not something that people see. If the lights go on, it works.
But the truth is that we have massive costs looming just to keep what we have working, let alone develop the "smart grid" that could help B.C. conserve energy.
We are blessed with cheap and clean electricity in this province. Raising rates modestly now, though unpopular, will fund needed work and help avoid more painful increases in the future.
Crown corporations are not cash machines. It was wrong for the NDP to pillage Hydro in the 1990s and it's wrong for the Liberals to buy votes with Hydro dollars today.
