Will NDP kill the Site C dam?

T

hey’re burning the midnight oil at the B.C. legislature this week as Premier John Horgan huddles with his MLAs and advisers before the biggest – and most expensive – decision facing his government.

Will the NDP kill the previous Liberal government’s $10-billion Site C dam, already under construction on the Peace River near Fort St. John?

Or will Horgan forge ahead and complete the controversial megaproject – the biggest in B.C. history – rather than take a $4-billion bath on a worthless hole in the ground?

The debate is raging internally, with late-night caucus meetings at the legislature and the MLA parking remaining full through the evening as talks go late.

On Wednesday, Horgan bailed out of a news conference with the excuse he was tied up in a cabinet meeting as the Site C decision looms.

As high noon ticks ever closer, advocates on both sides are putting maximum pressure on the government.

“I’m concerned they are going to go forward with the project,” B.C. Green party Leader Andrew Weaver wrote in an email to supporters, adding the Greens are “doing everything we can right to the very end” to stop construction of the dam.

The Weaver email ends with a virtual call-to-arms against the project, urging Green supporters to swamp the NDP government with emails to scrap the dam.

Supporters of the dam, meanwhile, are working overtime to hype the benefits of the project, while arguing it would be crazy to cancel it now.

The reason? B.C. Hydro has already spent $2 billion on the dam says it would cost another $2 billion to cancel it and “remediate” the work site.

The unions, of course, want the jobs on the project. And their report points out B.C. would have to secure power from other sources if it doesn’t proceed with Site C.

The conclusion: Better to build Site C and rely on its low-emission power for the next century instead.

But wait: Opponents of Site C say we don’t need all the power it will produce, at least not yet. Smaller, clean-energy projects could be built on an as-needed schedule, without breaking the bank on a massive hydroelectric dam that’s already over-budget.

The price tag of the Site C dam has soared from $8.3 billion to $10 billion and could rise even higher to $12 billion or beyond.

Opponents of the dam argue it would be wiser to take that $4-billion bath now, rather than lose billions more on a white elephant that bleeds red ink.

Which way will Horgan go? That’s the multi-billion-dollar question at the legislature, where speculation has reached a fevered pitch with so much money on the line.

I’m still betting he doesn’t want to fire more than 2,000 construction workers right before Christmas, and expose his government to a credit downgrade with the biggest bungled cancelled megaproject in B.C. history.