The Auditor General’s Office is again asking the provincial government to count money stashed away from the feds when it discloses a surplus.

Auditor General Carol Bellringer says there is $5.7 billion in deferral accounts from the federal goverment, which the Finance Ministry did not include when announcing a $1.5-billion-dollar surplus yesterday.

“It is important, on that qualification, for the legislature to appreciate what we’re saying is the financial situation of the province is actually better than as reported, and that the accumulation of that is quite significant,” Bellringer says.

“In future years, if we were to face a period where there was a downturn and if the results are less favourable, then from the government’s perspective, they will now start to show those as revenue items that we believed should’ve been reported in the past.”

Bellringer says she has been asking for eight years for the province to start counting federal funds in its surplus, and says it is common practice in most other parts of Canada.

Meanwhile, Bellringer says her Office is encouraged by the province addressing a major concern with a Crown corporation that has been a fiscal headache for taxpayers.

She says BC Hydro now follows Generally Accepted Accounted Principles, as the province has removed regulations that prevented the Crown corporation from doing so.

“Government also removed some previous directions from BC Hydro, and added new directions that allows the BC Utilities Commission, which is the regulator for BC Hydro, to set electricity rates and have greater oversight of BC Hydro, as it’s intended to.”

Bellringer says the province paid down a billion dollars last year in BC Hydro deferral accounts, she says that debt is now down to $4.2 billion.