BC Retains Triple A Credit Rating
Prince George, B.C. – Good news on the economic front.
Moody’s Investors Service has confirmed B.C.’s Aaa credit rating for the 12th year in a row, along with a stable outlook for the Province.
Finance Minister Mike de Jong says it’s thanks in part to its “track record of prudent fiscal planning and diversified economy leading to economic growth.”
“We have maintained a focus on prudent controlled spending while attracting investment, and diversifying our industries and export partners,” he says. “The external economic situation remains uncertain, which means we must be vigilant and continue to put B.C. on solid economic footing to weather any downturns.
“The upcoming budget will continue on this path to bring opportunities that create jobs and continued economic growth that pays for health, education and social programs for British Columbians.”
Moody’s said B.C. is rated at the higher end of Canadian provinces, which span from a range of Aaa to Aa3
“British Columbia has demonstrated strong fiscal management and performance in recent years, as evidenced by the quick return and maintenance of balanced budgets following the 2009 recession and limited increase of its debt burden during the years it produced deficits.”
The government says since November 2004, the Province has received seven credit rating upgrades and is now the only province rated tripe-A by each of the international rating agencies.
Comments
Good news indeed. Better credit rating leads to lower financing costs for the government and makes the province more attractive to investors.
Agreed
How much did the Libs pay Moody’s to give them that rating? After all, wasn’t that what all these supposed “ratings” agencies were doing prior to the 2008 debacle: being bought off by banks and mortgage houses to give AAA ratings on complete junk?
“Ratings” from Moody’s, Standard and Poors or any other of these useless outfits might as well be written on toilet paper, since that is all they are worth. Make the cheque big enough or give enough business and “ratings” agencies will give you whatever rating you desire.
Hell, they’ll “even rate it if Cows structure the deal” <—–paraphrased quote from S&P employee to a colleague over e-mail.
Dippers gotta hate, hate, hate… Must just kill you inside to know BC is doing so well
Great news!
Funny how an hour and a half has gone by since this story was posted and we’ve yet to hear from BeingHuman, Ataloss, Hahaha and our other Christy Clarke haters!
Maybe with all of the Women’s marches this weekend, they’ve all decided that they need to be nicer to Christy? I doubt that that is the case, instead I suspect that they are just hoping that nobody notices this story and their absence from commenting on it!
Nice that Mike and the BC Liberals are banging the drum on the government’s consecutive years of balanced budgets and managed debt, yet they forgot to mention some important points Moody’s credit assessment brought up, namely that; “BC Hydro’s total reported debt has risen considerably since 2008, increasing from $8.1 Billion as of March 31, 2008 to an estimated $18.1 Billion as of March 31, 2016, and is expected to continue to rise over the medium-term as the utility moves forward on the construction of a $8.8 Billion hydroelectric dam (Site C) as part of its Integrated Resources Plan. The anticipated increase in debt continues to pressure the province’s rating since it raises the contingent liabilities of British Columbia.”
Moody’s goes on the state; “BC Hydro has flexibility to increase utility rates” (NO KIDDING) “to ensure that its own revenues will continue to support its operations and debt payments. However, once adjusting net income to take into consideration the extensive use of largely debt financed regulatory asset accounts, BC HYDRO posts some metrics that are among the “WEAKEST” of Canadian provincial utilities.”
What a peanut and shell game these Liberals are playing, BC Hydro is borrowing hundreds of millions of dollars to meet the provincial government’s demands for an annual dividend. “The Crown power corporation owes around $852 million to the government over the next three fiscal years in mandatory annual dividend payments. But it doesn’t have the cash, and so it will have to borrow the funds”, said Energy Minister Bill Bennett. Oh and don’t forget raising our Hydro rates as well.
vancouversun.com/news/local-news/bc-hydro-borrows-millions-more-to-pay-government-dividend
Isn’t it great to see the economy doing so well, and now this from Moody’s? Another 4 years of Liberals will satisfy me.
Great News, Christy Clark rated best at fiscal management in all of Canada and lowest rates for power.. amazing.
LOL, that’s it in a “nutshell” X-it!!! Let me try to add to your comment, if this government continues to rob Peter (BC Hydro) to pay Paul (BC Liberal Gov), eventually Peter (BC Hydro) is going to have the worst “credit rating” in Canada and Paul (BC Liberal Gov) comes up smelling like a rose! LMAO, but damn up goes our Hydro rates again…
LMAO! A great joke. Sorry, couldn’t resist.
Don’t get mad at something the NDP brought in during their reign of power in the 90s. I thought everything they did back then was peachy keen?
Dippers gotta hate, hate, hate
Y’know when it fits you just gotta go use it
Just showing everyone here how the BC Libs cherry pick out of the Moody’s credit report using positive spin information. The information I posted in my above comment on BC Hydro can be found on page 5 of that report, but of course that information would never make it into a BC Liberal Government media release, now would it? Doing my best to ensure “balanced” information is being presented here!
ht tp://www.fin.gov.bc.ca/PT/dmb/ref/ratingMoodys.pdf
Balance the info with the fact that the NDP started the process that any crown corporation should give back to the people of the province (or some similar mantra you can go look it up) in the form of a dividend
Dippers gotta hate, hate, hate
HG Ya we didn’t see Chrisy marching did we. Swiftly moving on haha. Way to go Liberals. Well done.
Wish the Libs would change their name not to associate with the federal Liberals or Ontario Liberials. Quite the mess federal Libs are in. Couple of headlines for you.
Australia PM adviser says climate change is ‘UN-led ruse to establish new world order’
Tony Abbott’s business adviser says global warming a fallacy supported by United Nations to ‘create a new authoritarian world order under its control’
Canada ‘concerned’ with aid funds to Afghanistan following inquiry into alleged corruption
The nuts keep falling from the tree ever since a nutter became President of the USA.
Take a look-isn’t it just amazing Moody’s also gave Saskatchewan and Alberta a triple A rating. Just more BS and lies from this government.
Not true Moody’s downgraded Alberta’s rating, see what happens when you vote NDP
Guess the NDP couldn’t afford the asking price for a Triple AAA rating thanks to years of Conservative government over runs in Alberts.
Huh, funny how X-it forgot to mention Alberta’s credit rating was first downgraded just before Alberta’s May, 2015 election, BEFORE the NDP was elected to office!
Gonna ride that one are ya? May 5th, 2016 NDP took over Alberta’s economy and May 19th based on the NDP’s budget platform Standard and Poor’s downgraded the credit rating. Standard and Poor also downgraded Alberta in December 2015 and again in May 2016 and in April 2016 both Moody’s and DBRS downgraded Alberta’s credit rating.
Dippers just gotta hate, hate, hate… you know, one could make a song out of that
May 5th, “2015” the NDP won the Alberta election NOT 2016! All credit rating services review financial to the end of March (31st) each year. So in 2015 Alberta’s credit rate was down graded based on March 31st 2015 financial data, TWO MONTHS before the NDP won the election and took office!
Keep it going with your misinformation campaign slinky, soon everyone is going to stop believing what you post.
ht tp://www.cbc.ca/news/elections/alberta-votes/alberta-election-2015-results-ndp-wave-sweeps-across-province-in-historic-win-1.3062605
Whats the new mantra…alternative facts….thanks tRump and your band of deplorable bull shitters….
Oops may 5th 2015, Standard and Poor’s lowered downgraded May 19, 2015
Better BH?
Dippers gotta hate, hate, hate
When they put 2015 info in 2016 reports it messes things up but here is a summary which shows things better – dates are from newspaper reports
Alberta Chronology
May 5, 2015 NDP elected enjoying triple A rating
Dec 18, 2015 Standard and Poor’s lowers Alberta rating
Jan 21, 2016 DBRS maintains Alberta’s rating trending negative
April 15, 2016 DBRS lowers Alberta’s rating
April 25, 2016 Moody’s lowers Alberta’s rating
May 19, 2016 Standard and Poor’s lowers Alberta’s rating again
Alberta currently has no triple A ratings
There was no downgrade in 2015 “just before the election” in Alberta
ht tp://www.finance.alberta.ca/business/investor-relations/credit-ratings/index.html
Oh well, dippers gotta hate, hate, hate
*Alberta*
Alberta downgraded and Saskatchewan told the feds to get stuffed.
Good news and good work by the provincial government. NDP’ers gonna hate on this, but too bad. BC is consistently a leader in economic performance.
Lots of detective work there slinky, must have taken you a bit to dig that up. But it is all in vain Black is white to them. No winning that one. It is all just a mystery why the ratings dropped and the debt went through the roof and everyone is out of work. But good new Christy Clark is building site c so Alberta does not have to worry about those 3 power plants they shut down.
My phone may be a plus but still hard to flip back and forth between pages. Someone has to do the research, just finding one page that supports your view is easy but balancing the entire picture is harder. I so do not want to go back to the 90s again it is worth it. History doesn’t repeat itself but people are determined to repeat history.
Deflecting and diverting discussion away from something the BC Liberals would rather not have us know, or talk about, is a common practice / tactic they employ. However, this is an article about BC’s credit rating, so let’s bring this discussion back to BC!
Moody’s Investment Services is correct in their dismal assessment of BC Hydro being among the WORST performing public utilities in Canada. Let’s talk about just how much our Hydro rates are going to increase in the future, will they will triple or even quadruple? In order for the BC Liberal government to achieve all those balanced budgets, AND have BC Hydro pay down its own debt, guess where that money comes from? Yup a good part of it comes from you and me, the residential users of power in this province, through ever increasing hydro rates.
But wait, it gets worse! Did you know BC Hydro is facing a $3.5 Billion dollar shortfall in revenue due to reduced energy demand from industry? Yup, so where is the money to cover that shortfall going to come from? These are the kinds of questions we should be asking our government representatives… don’t you think?
vancouversun.com/business/energy/drop-in-industrial-demand-to-cost-bc-hydro-3-5-billion
No deflection, just something the NDP started to try and balance the books to try and hold on to power and they still couldn’t run s balanced budget because the province was in the proverbial toilet. And you want to lead the charge and drag us back into that, sad
But hey, dippers gotta hate, hate, hate
PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT #2: BC’s credit rating remained stable throughout the 1990s under the NDP. In 1990, BC’s credit rating was AA a rating that remained in place right through to 1999, when it dropped to AA- under circumstances beyond the provincial government’s control; namely the Asian Market collapse.
ht tp://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/reality-check-b-c-s-credit-rating-1.1400605
Alberta is double A – and guess what it’s under NDP rule. Always circumstances beyond their control unless it’s another party then the NDP are posting Public Service Announcements
Dippers gotta hate, hate, hate
Th NDP inherited BC’s AA credit rating from the previous government in 1990, the NDP kept that credit rating “stable” for BC for 10 consecutive years!
Then along comes a lying BC Lib-Con like you stating; “the NDP started to try and balance the books to try and hold on to power and they still couldn’t run s balanced budget because the province was in the proverbial toilet. And you want to lead the charge and drag us back into that, sad.”
Back to what? A whole decade of stable credit ratings for BC? Sure, sign me up!!! Must be frustrating for you slinky, constantly trying to paint an inaccurate picture about how bad it was under an NDP government, yet me countering with facts and the truth that reveal your Lieberal lies!
See you after my next comment slinky, my very own BC Liberal shadow troll.
Yes it cost money to build dams, but guess what it benefits BC and our children for years to come. And with everyone wanting electric cars.. were does the power come from to recharge those. Oh ya out of thin air. Or bird slicers that never work and cost a fortune to maintain
BeingHateful must have forgot to read the article about BC being triple A
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