$1.5B Gas Royalty Error Blamed on Spreadsheet Mistake

The British Columbia government is facing scrutiny over a $1.5 billion natural gas royalty accounting error that it attributes to a spreadsheet mistake.

A human error in a currency conversion calculation resulted in an overstatement of revenue, leading to a correction of approximately $1.462 billion over the next four years.

The government claims this was due to Canadian dollars being mistakenly converted to American dollars when they shouldn't have been.

The Treaty 8 First Nations had warned the government about price calculation errors in July and expressed concern that the incoming royalty changes fall short of promised rates, with actual royalties potentially reaching only 11-14% compared to the promised 50%.