If there is a new government in B.C. on May 15, it will be confronted with issues that make the transition harder than most government changeovers we have seen in the past.

The financial issues are a given. Debt has gone up. Possibly, given the economic recession we faced, it should have gone up even further. The dramatic rise in long-term contractual obligations is more of a concern. Most of this is made up of the $53 billion we will be paying independent power producers decades into the future. And, of course, there are the BC Hydro deferral accounts identified by the auditor general that will inevitably push up our hydro costs.