So, Canterbury's unelected dictatorship are running ECan at a loss:
Environment Canterbury is staring down the barrel of a nearly $4 million deficit for the financial year.
The regional council's draft financial summary, presented at last week's commissioners' meeting, projected annual revenue for the year ending June 30 to be $141.632 million, against expenditure of $145.476m.
While there are still some costs yet to be tabled, it is likely ECan will record an annual deficit in excess of $3.5 million for the second consecutive financial year.
However, ECan commissioner David Bedford said it was a "reasonably positive" result.
So how are they paying for these losses? Not by borrowing, but by pillaging ECan's reserves - meaning that there will be nothing left when (if?) democracy is restored, and leaving any democratic successor with a nasty poison pill to swallow. But I guess that's what happens when you don't face any democratic accountability for your job performance, and you're responsible to a Minister in Wellington rather than voters in Canterbury.
