As it is recounted in the Skanda Purana … Kirtimukha or glorious face is what is left of a beast created in the embodiment of Lord Shiva’s rage. In a gesture of containment Shiva ordered it to feed on itself and the Kirtimukha obediently obliged, tail first, leaving only his glorious face.

People pay Hydro

Hydro pays Province

Hydro pays Independants

Peoples pay Hydro

While no where near as the elegant as the beast of Hindu Myth, BC Hydro, the provincial Crown Corporation responsible for electricity, seems to exhibit the same structural properties. Let me explain …  According to an article in Desmogcanada.com  Eoin Finn of the BC Ratepayers Association, notes that BC Hydro is $20 billion in debt and goes on to explain that the corporation has used ‘deferral accounts’ to develop a further $6 billion  of debt that is misrepresented as an asset. All this, according to Finn, gives BC Hydro the worst debt to equity ratio of any public or private utility in North America.

Finn explains how this huge debt was built up over a period of 15 years by the previous Liberal government as it funded itself from BC hydro coffers to the tune of $3 billion regardless of income, or rather debt. They didn’t permit rate increases for electoral reasons. To top it all, they set up a privatization programme, wherein BC Hydro was obliged to buy power from Independant Power Producers (IPP) at rates that would cover the IPP’s expenses and capital costs’ regardless of market realities. It seems that BC Hydro presently buys power at a rate of $93 per megawatt hour and sells it for $88. As such, all we have today of a corporation that has been steadily eating itself for 15 years is its Glorious face – its Kiritimukha!

Image: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kirtimukha

https://www.desmog.ca/2018/03/02/what-you-need-know-about-bc-hydro-s-financial-mess-and-site-c-dam