To the editor:
BC Hydro’s Site C dam project apparently is now being rammed through.
It would be one of the biggest projects in British Columbia's history. The total cost would be huge, about $9 billion – red flag.
Normally, the regulator, BC Utilities Commission (BCUC), would review such a project. But, the B.C. Liberal government has removed that requirement – red flag.
The Site C dam would flood 83 kilometres of the Peace River Valley, including 3,433 hectares (8,483 acres) of agricultural land – red flag.
Site C is the largest ever removal of land from the B.C. Agricultural Land Reserve (ALR) – red flag.
Site C is supposedly justified based on power demand growth projections in B.C. Power demand in B.C. has, in fact, levelled off – red flag.
The B.C. government is trying to say that powering B.C. liquefied natural gas (LNG) exports with clean BC Hydro power instead of natural gas would make LNG greener.
This is nonsense. It just means that more natural gas would be exported as LNG, and burned elsewhere – red flag.
BC Hydro’s debt is now about $19 billion. It owes well over $56 billion for power from IPPs. It is hiding billions of dollars of debt in deferral accounts – triple red flags.
Hugh Thomas
100 Mile House