British Columbia’s government says a series of technical calculation mistakes, not its new royalty system, caused it to overstate natural gas royalties in Budget 2026, and it has asked the Auditor General to review the file.
In a statement to StudioX News, the Ministry of Energy and Climate Solutions said it was alerted to a “potential error” in July and traced it to an administrative mistake involving unit and currency conversions in the natural gas price forecast.
“It is incorrect to claim that this was due to a lack of accounting of transportation and processing costs,” the ministry said. “ECS has reached out to the Auditor General as directed by Premier Eby.”
The correction lowers forecasted royalties by an average of $292 million per year over five years. Government officials have since put the total overestimation at close to $1.5 billion, tied to four separate errors, with the largest single factor a currency conversion mistake in a spreadsheet. The updated figures will appear in the First Quarterly Report, due in September.
How the error surfaced
The problem was first flagged this summer by experts working with Treaty 8 First Nations, who wrote to Premier David Eby, then-Energy Minister Adrian Dix and the finance ministry warning of “substantial errors” in Budget 2026. The First Nations initially believed the mistake stemmed from how processing and transportation costs were calculated. The ministry says its technical staff later determined those costs had in fact been included, and that a deeper review uncovered the spreadsheet and conversion errors.
The disclosure came publicly on Aug. 26, hours after a Business in Vancouver investigation reported that flawed gas price forecasting could cost the province far more than the government’s figure, estimating the overestimation as high as $500 million per year.
Government defends the new royalty framework
The ministry was firm that the error does not undermine the New Royalty Framework set to take effect Jan. 1, 2027.
“This referenced error was not a result of the proposed new royalty system,” the statement said. “In implementing the new system, government analyses a range of price environments and scenarios, rather than relying solely on one price forecast to make decisions.”
ECS said it will now add third-party verification of inputs and calculations to future budget forecasts. The September quarterly report will show corrected petroleum and natural gas revenue forecasts based on the most current third-party data and recent market volatility.
Pressure for an independent probe
The opposition is not letting the matter rest. BC Greens finance critic Rob Botterell has formally asked the Auditor General to investigate how the error occurred, its impact on the new royalty framework, and the decision-making behind it. “Integrity and accuracy in public finances are not optional,” he said.
Questions also remain over statements Dix made to Treaty 8 First Nations that the new framework would deliver a $2.4-billion windfall over five years, figures drawn from the same budget numbers now acknowledged as flawed.
Why it matters here
Natural gas royalties are a core source of provincial revenue that helps fund health care, schools and services relied on by every community in B.C., including the newcomer and diaspora families settling across the province. A billion-dollar hole in the forecast, corrected only after outside pressure, raises direct questions about how carefully public money is tracked and who checks the math.
The First Quarterly Report is expected later in September.
The statement above was provided on the record to StudioX News by Alanah Connie, Communications Director, GCPE Energy and Climate Solutions. Additional figures are drawn from the ministry’s public technical briefing and independent reporting.
#BCbudget #BCpolitics #NaturalGas #Canada #BCleg
Harnaik Singh Rathor is the Founder, Publisher, and Editor-in-Chief of StudioX News Canada, Canada's multilingual digital news network serving diaspora communities across 44 languages. With a background in media production, public relations, and multicultural communications, he founded StudioX Film and TV Corporation to bridge the gap between mainstream Canadian media and the country's diverse immigrant communities. He is a member of the Canadian Association of Journalists (CAJ), RTDNA Canada, CPRS Vancouver, Unifor, NEPMCC, and the Canada Freelance Union. Based in Surrey, British Columbia. | LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/harnaiksinghrathor/ | Muck Rack: https://muckrack.com/harnaiksinghrathor | Email: editor@studioxnews.ca
