The BC Liberal claim that the New Democrat government took money from BC Hydro is fake news.

On Monday morning, BC Liberal MLA Tracy Redies told CHNL:

“The government is just saying they have a $1.5b surplus, but actually, $950m of it relates to a one-time accounting adjustment to BC Hydro regulatory accounts. So it’s not a recurring cashflow stream. It’s a one-time-only amount.”

The BC Liberals’ accusation is false.

The $950 million Redies referenced was a transfer made to BC Hydro, not from it, that occurred in the previous budget cycle. The investment is just one of many steps the New Democrat government has taken to reverse the damage done by the BC Liberals and get Hydro rates back under control after years of major increases.

Where did BC Liberals get this idea? Perhaps it’s because that’s precisely what they did in government. The BC Liberals raided both ICBC and BC Hydro by roughly $1.8 billion to pad their own budgets. The choices they made had an impact that people are still paying for today.

“Raiding BC Hydro to pad a surplus is the BC Liberals’ move, not ours,” said New Democrat MLA Bruce Ralston. “They raided hundreds of millions of dollars in their long 16 years of government. That did real damage to our public utility and people felt the sting of it on their energy bill. Their bad choices are going to take time to repair but, we’re committed to doing the work to deliver reliable, affordable energy for people in BC.”

This is not the first time this month a BC Liberal MLA has been caught sharing fake news. In early July, MLA John Rustad circulated an untrue report about scientists euthanizing caribou in Northern B.C.