When Bill Boyd speaks of “glitches” in government, he does so with considerable authority.

“Glitches” — and we’re talking about glitches of the billion-dollar variety — have pretty much defined the eight-year career of the Saskatchewan Party government’s economy minister.

Admittedly, sometimes a politician’s good name becomes attached to a problem over which he or she may have had little or no control. And when such glitches seem to be both repetitive — and rather costly — under that politician’s watch, it’s hard not to tag them with being

responsible.

Remember all those glitches with SaskPower’s smart meters? Boyd — the minister responsible for SaskPower — shouldn’t be exclusively blamed for this highly combustible problem, which then-SaskPower president Robert Watson initially also tried to sell as a few glitches. Indeed, Boyd should be given credit for taking ownership of the fiasco and presiding over the subsequent termination of Watson.

There have also been glitches at the near-billion-dollar Global Transportation Hub, where Boyd failed to secure tenants like Kal Tire. It’s not necessarily all his fault, but it’s not far from his area of responsibility, either.

While the failure of the railways to move western grain — or rather, the failure of politicians like Boyd to convince the CP/CN duopoly that their responsibility extends beyond focusing on moving more lucrative oil — can’t be pinned on one specific politician, this, too, was a major $5-billion glitch in the agriculture economy that happened under Boyd’s tenure.

Sometimes, however, “glitches” can be directly attributed to the minister responsible.

Before smart meters, came the 2009 budget glitch on potash royalty revenues when Boyd and his cabinet colleagues bought into the hype from the PotashCorp leadership of the day about the company’s projected sales. As it turned out, instead of $2 billion in potash royalties in 2009-10, the province wound up paying the potash companies for tax breaks owed.

Then, there has been the little glitch in oil prices under Boyd’s watch — he has consistently and wrongly estimated oil royalty revenue for years now. How many hundreds of millions of dollars have been miscalculated is tough to determine, but the hubris from Boyd’s senior staff says much about the minister and the cavalier manner in which he’s conducted business.

In fact, every time there is a “glitch” when Bill Boyd is around, it seems to cost Saskatchewan taxpayers about a billion dollars, which makes one wonder why he hasn’t yet been handed responsibility for the $1.8 billion Regina bypass.

It would a great addition to Billion-Dollar Bill’s collection.

But perhaps Boyd’s most impressive addition of late is the $1.5-billion carbon capture and sequestration project at Boundary Dam, which Premier Brad Wall, SaskPower CEO Mike Marsh and Boyd insist is “fully operational” … except for the little glitches which result in it either operating at half capacity or not at all.

That SaskPower documents obtained by the NDP show the facility is only working at 45 per cent capacity would seem a big glitch to many. Not to Boyd.