Premier defends decision to overrule regulator
Clark says she’s keeping her promise to keep rates low
Premier Christy Clark says she won’t back down from her government’s decision to overrule the province’s independent utilities regulator, which called for a significant BC Hydro rate increase next year.
On Tuesday, the Liberal government ordered BC Hydro to cap its rate increase at 17 per cent over three years, down from the 30 per cent hike it had originally proposed.
“The legislation allows the government to override their decisions precisely because sometimes we end up in situations where the B. C. Utilities Commission decides that a 50- per- cent increase is appropriate, and the government decides that it’s not,” Clark told a news conference Wednesday.
Clark said she’s keeping her promise of low electricity rates.
“When I became premier, I told British Columbians that I was going to wrestle that rate increase down. And we spent lots of money and many, many months doing a really thorough audit of BC Hydro to try to get that rate increase down.
“And we did find a way to get it down, we’ve got it down to 1.4 per cent over this next year.”
Clark said higher Hydro rates would add another burden on taxpayers during tough economic times.
“I know that the union was arguing hard for a 50- per- cent rate increase at the B. C. Utilities Commission, and I just disagree with that,” she said in reference to CUPE Local 378.
Clark made her comments during a news conference about her recent trade mission to Japan, Korea and the Philippines. She said a total of 25 business deals and partnership agreements were signed during the mission, worth more than half a billion dollars.