Finance minister Mike De Jong says the government quickly revised its provincial budget over the last few days to lower its expected revenue from natural gas royalties in the next year.
De Jong says the change was made after advice from independent economist Tim O’Neill, who found the government over-estimated natural gas revenues in five of the last eight years.
“He identified a particular area relating to natural gas, made a recommendation that we’ve accepted around pricing for natural gas, you’ll see that confirmed in the budget documents tomorrow, that’s had an impact of between 60 and 70 million dollars.”
NDP Finance critic Bruce Ralston says he’s glad O’Neill has proved him right, noting his concerns about overly optimistic gas rates were dismissed by the Liberals last year.
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