C Hydro belongs to British Columbia. We run as a business without subsidies from government. And, like other commercial businesses, we provide dividends to our owner; in our case, the Province of British Columbia.

Eighty five per cent of the profit we make goes directly back to our province by way of a dividend and is used to provide a variety of services to the people of BC. The balance of our profit is retained by BC Hydro and is used to ensure the reliability of electric supply to the entire province.

BC Hydro's roots go back to 1883 when we first turned BC's lights on. However, at BC Hydro we believe that we have a special responsibility that goes beyond business. We are committed to providing the energy needed to fuel the economic growth of our province and we are also living up to our special responsibility as an economic, social and environmental leader.

Contributing to the community through our donations program is one way we do that. Our donations support not-for-profit groups that provide services, programs and opportunities that contribute to the vitality and well being of BC communities.

We bring power to people in all corners of this province. Even customers in remote and rural areas of BC can be serviced by BC Hydro.

BC Hydro continues to produce strong financial performance on behalf of our stakeholders. Last year our net income was up $69 million from the previous year and our return on equity increased to 18.69% from 16 percent. In addition, finance charges decreased, primarily as a result of an active debt management program to take advantage of lower short-term interest rates during the year. Finance charges decreased by $40 million and corporate net debt was reduced by $201 million from the previous year.

As a result of its strong financial performance, which was largely due to high inflows into reservoirs allowing for increased sales of surplus energy, BC Hydro granted an across the board customer profit sharing. This one-time credit totaled $32 million and amounted to a two percent credit for residential and small industrial customers, and a one percent credit for large commercial and industrial customers.

Operations, maintenance and administration cost per kilowatt-hour were also reduced by 11% over the previous year.

The Power is Yours
Did you know the average residential customer used 10,171 kilowatts of electricity last year? That translates into an annual electrical bill of $620.43.

Last year BC Hydro paid $823 million in tax and dividend payments. BC Hydro's payments included $280 million to the province for water rentals; $366 million to the province in dividends; $143 million shared between the province, municipalities and regional districts for school taxes and grant-in-lieu of general taxes on Hydro facilities and $34 million in Corporation Capital taxes.