“The Liberals treat taxpayers’ dollars as if they were monopoly money, throwing away tens of millions to keep the record of their mistakes secret,” said John Cummins, Leader of British Columbia’s Conservatives. “Not only did a litany of political interference lead to Boss Power suing the provincial government in the first place, but now we find that the government blew nearly $21 million more on the settlement than was necessary.”
VICTORIA –The BC Liberal government is so incompetent that it had to pay $30 million of taxpayers’ dollars for the Boss Power fiasco to cover-up their own incompetence.
“The Liberals treat taxpayers’ dollars as if they were monopoly money, throwing away tens of millions to keep the record of their mistakes secret,” said John Cummins, Leader of British Columbia’s Conservatives. “Not only did a litany of political interference lead to Boss Power suing the provincial government in the first place, but now we find that the government blew nearly $21 million more on the settlement than was necessary.”
“This over-the-top payout is part of a clear pattern about how the Liberals do business. First it was the Basi-Virk payout, where silence cost taxpayers $6 million. Then there was the botched Telus deal for BC Place where $35 million was thrown away due to political interference. Now we have $21 million more than necessary for Boss Power. The lesson is clear – whenever the Liberals mess up, taxpayers pay the price.”
The B.C. Liberal government wasted $21 million of taxpayers’ money to cover up their own incompetence in handling a uranium mining ban implemented in 2008, say the New Democrats.
New Democrat energy and mines critic John Horgan said the uranium mining ban was implemented on April 24, 2008, three days after mining company Boss Power had applied for a Notice of Work permit. The government failed to process that permit, despite a legal obligation to do so, after the Chief Inspector of Mines was instructed not to process it.
In October 2011, the Liberals settled with the company on the courthouse steps for $30 million. The opposition New Democrats questioned the extraordinary cost of the settlement, and filed a freedom of information request for the government’s independent evaluations.
Court documents finally released after a five-month delay show the fair value recommended in a government-commissioned report to be between $4.4 million and $6.7 million. A court-appointed industry expert later determined a more fair evaluation to be $8.7 million.
“This is incompetence and mismanagement at the highest levels,” said Horgan. “The Liberals could have settled this claim for as little as $4 million, but once Boss found out about the Liberals’ interference in the process, negotiations took a turn for the worse for taxpayers.
“British Columbians deserve to hear the Liberal government explain why they handed over an extra $21 million on the courthouse steps to avoid testifying in court.”
“When the $30 million settlement came to light last October, court documents revealed the Liberals admitted to breaking the law by not processing the Notice of Work,” said Leonard Krog, New Democrat critic for attorney general. “They had a legal obligation to process that application one way or another, and went against their own legal counsel by deliberately ignoring it.
