Premier David Eby is facing calls for an auditor general investigation over his government’s miscalculation of natural gas revenues
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The B.C. Conservatives are calling for an investigation by B.C.’s auditor general into how the Ministry of Energy and Climate Solutions miscalculated revenue from natural gas royalties by almost $1.5 billion over the next five years and why Premier David Eby claimed to know nothing about it.
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“This is huge. This is a stand-alone scandal, big enough to take down the government,” said Gavin Dew, the B.C. Conservative finance critic.
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“There’s really two scandals here. The first is how do you get a revenue forecast that is dramatically wrong by $1.5 billion, and the second is what happened after people inside government were warned that it was wrong?”
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The error was revealed by Business in Vancouver in a story published this week. Its investigation found the shortfall could be closer to $500 million a year, or $2.5 billion over five years.
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The calculations made by experts BIV consulted were based on the 2026 provincial budget and found the government failed to account for transportation and processing costs.
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Premier David Eby told reporters on Tuesday he had no knowledge of any miscalculations when it comes to the royalties B.C. receives from natural gas production.
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On Wednesday, the Energy Ministry said it had been informed of the error in July.
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A ministry spokesperson said an internal review was launched and found “an administrative error relating to unit and currency conversions” used in the price forecast for natural gas.
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“It is incorrect to claim that this was due to a lack of accounting of transportation and safety costs,” the spokesperson said, adding that as a result, calculations for the 2026 budget were corrected.
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However, a First Nations chief disputes both Eby and the ministry’s timeline.
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Chief Roland Willson of the West Moberly First Nations said he spoke to the premier on July 14 and personally handed the premier a letter that day outlining the concerns of Treaty 8 nations about how the government calculated natural gas revenue for the coming years. He also said his technical team had informed Energy Minister Adrian Dix of the problems back in June.
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Willson said that Treaty 8 Nations have been negotiating the province’s new framework for natural gas royalties for the past four years and the nations have been disputing the government’s estimates of how much it will bring in.
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The new royalties are scheduled to go into place on Jan. 1 and will account for the costs of the production process, not just revenue. However, details of the new system’s specific calculations have not been released.
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“He told us that the message was received, and that he’d have his people look into the error and get back to Treaty 8 right away. B.C. has never responded to our letter,” Willson said.
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“This is a much, much larger problem than what B.C. is making it out to be.”
