Morneau may not have been fleeced, but certainly paid at the high end of the valuation scale, apparently assuming that everything would proceed smoothly
The sticker price Kinder Morgan put on the Trans Mountain pipeline when it entered negotiations with the federal government last year was $6.5 billion. Hence, finance minister Bill Morneau and his team thought they’d scored a bargain when they sealed the deal at $4.4 billion.
But it looks increasingly like he may bought a cat in a sack.
The Parliamentary Budget Officer released a detailed valuation of the pipeline on Thursday and it makes grim reading for the government.
The finance minister leapt on the headline finding that the purchase price was within the PBO’s $3.6 billion-to-$4.6 billion valuation.
But the PBO added the weighty caveat that the valuation range assumes the pipeline will be built on time and on budget.
John Ivison – National Post – January 31, 2019.