Listen to this article
Estimated 3 minutes
The audio version of this article is generated by AI-based technology. Mispronunciations can occur. We are working with our partners to continually review and improve the results.
The Ministry of Energy and Climate Solutions says the nearly $1.5-billion error in this year’s budget resulted from four different mistakes made while forecasting how much money the province will collect in natural gas royalties over the next five years.
That’s according to senior ministry staff who released a summary of the problems on Tuesday afternoon.
The mistake with the largest impact involved applying a U.S. dollar to Canadian conversion rate to figures that were already expressed in Canadian dollars.
“A formula was incorrectly dragged across cells,” said a ministry representative.
In another error, gas unit volumes were incorrectly converted, while in two other instances, staff used cost inputs from the year 2025 instead of 2026.
Last week, the premier’s office admitted that budget 2026 had overinflated projected gas royalties by an average of $292 million per year over the next five years.
According to senior ministry staff, the mistakes were made by “technical people inside the ministry,” and “new quality assurance and quality control measures have been implemented.”
“This was a human-caused and regrettable error made by a mistake on a spreadsheet,” said a spokesperson.
WATCH | $1.5-billion budget error:
B.C.’s $1.5B budget error raises questions about gas royalties, transparency
Experts with Treaty 8 First Nations first flagged the budget problem to Premier David Eby, Energy Minister Adrian Dix, and then-finance minister Brenda Bailey earlier this summer.
It wasn’t until Business in Vancouver broke the story last week that the government acknowledged the problem.
Treaty 8 First Nations are located in gas-rich northeastern B.C. and receive a portion of the royalties collected by the province.
A lawyer with a Treaty 8 First Nation said communicating with the province about the errors in the budget and their concerns around the gas royalty framework has been difficult.
“Our experts, we as advisers, the chiefs directly, have been asking for a full transparent technical review for weeks with absolute silence on their part,” said James Tate.
The government announced a $13.3-billion deficit for this fiscal year, a figure that is likely to rise once adjusted for the error. An updated fiscal outlook is expected later this month.
The ministry said the mistakes revealed Tuesday are not related to, and have no effect on, a new gas royalty framework being rolled out on Jan. 1, 2027, which aims to capture 50 per cent of industry profits for the public purse.