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VICTORIA — Massive political interference by the B.C. Liberals in B.C. Hydro. Hydro’s estimates of its own electricity needs and the way it could obtain power manipulated by direct orders from the cabinet table.

The independent B.C. Utilities Commission restricted in its ability to vet Hydro’s electricity needs and the prices it would be paying.

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Hydro bullied into buying private power that it didn’t need, at premium prices, locked in for decades.

Hydro ordered, as well, to buy too much of the wrong kind of power from intermittent run-of-river sources, undermining its ability to reap substantial profits trading firm power with neighbouring jurisdictions.

Ratepayers stuck with the tab for all these politically driven shenanigans not just now but for decades into the future.

Staggering losses for Hydro, staggering impacts for ratepayers.

It’s all there in a report released Wednesday by the energy ministry. Author Ken Davidson is a consulting accountant and former official in the treasury board, the branch of the provincial finance ministry that scrutinizes spending.