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The B.C. government ended the last fiscal year with a surplus of $2.7 billion, largely in line with an unaudited financial picture released about two months ago by the province's former B.C. Liberal government.

James also repeated an intention to invest in sustainable economic growth and talked about investment in social programs like housing and education.

"It's really tough for people out there to see the benefit of a surplus this size when they're struggling day to day to manage, when you take a look at the poverty rates in our province," she said.

Eby and other ICBC supporters single out the actions of former Liberal premier Gordon Campbell as marking the beginning of the corporation’s troubles.

Campbell required ICBC to keep much higher amounts of backup capital. The resulting stockpile proved irresistible to politicians in 2010 following the global financial meltdown, critics say, when the government began siphoning hundreds of millions of dollars of “excess capital” almost every year.

In all, the Liberals withdrew $1.2 billion from the lucrative optional side of ICBC’s business, and also transferred $1.4 billion to offset deficits on the compulsory side providing basic coverage beginning in 2012.

“The reason we’re in a bind right now is that there’s no more money left in the optional piggy bank,” said retired civil servant Rick McCandless, who has written extensively on ICBC.

http://globalnews.ca/news/3666783/icbc- ... y-critics/