Auditor general reviewing accounting around NDP electrical policy
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Alberta’s auditor general is looking at whether the NDP government’s changes to the province’s electrical system have put it in control of what has been an arms-length agency.
Last fall, the NDP government authorized the Balancing Pool — an independent provincial agency — to borrow to help cover its losses from money-losing power purchase arrangements for coal-fired power.
The government also played a role in setting the Balancing Pool’s charge for consumers used to deal with the losses.
In a Feb. 6 letter responding to the Wildrose’s request for an investigation of documents the Opposition says show the government’s improper interference with the Balancing Pool, auditor general Merwan Saher said his office is assessing the accounting implications of the changes to the policies.
“Specifically, we are assessing whether or not the Department of Energy through its recent actions controls the Balancing Pool for financial reporting purposes,” said Saher in the letter.
“Control for financial reporting purposes means the ability to govern the financial and operating policies of another organization with expected benefits or the risk of loss to the government from the other organization’s activities.”
Once that is determined, Saher said he can address how his office proceeds with the Wildrose’s request. The provincial auditor general is not the appointed auditor of the Balancing Pool.
Kimberley Nishikaze, a spokeswoman for the auditor general, said the review is being done as part of Saher’s regular annual oversight of the provincial government’s consolidated financial statements.
The PPAs were relinquished to the Balancing Pool in response to the Notley government’s increase to the carbon levy on large emitters in 2015.
In the provincial budget released two weeks ago, a footnote shows the province plans to borrow, on behalf of the Balancing Pool, $2.2 billion by the 2019-2020 fiscal year.
The government said in a statement the Balancing Pool is typically not named in the Alberta budget, but “in the interests of transparency” it included the loan in this year’s document.
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