The experts appointed to review the claim by the Auditor General that the surpluses in the teacher and civil servant pension plans cannot be counted as government assets have reported . Importantly they have sided with the government and against the Auditor General, Bonnie Lysyk. Lysyk's pension surplus accounting policy required the government to add $10 billion to the provincial debt and $1.5 billion to the deficit last fall. Only then did she approve the final provincial government books for 2015-16 (the Public Accounts). The government estimates this policy would add $2.2 billion to the deficit this fiscal year (2016-17). Indeed, a ccording to the Finance Ministry's Fall Economic Statement t he extra program expense associated with this policy is increasing at a rate of $600 to $900 million per year through until at least 2018-19. The Minis try of Finance reports that this policy would add $2.8 billion in program expense in 2017/18 and $3.7 billi
Notes from Leftwords -- Doug Allan