Clark’s loss could end mega-projects

Re: “Vote was a rebuke of Christy Clark,” editorial, May 13. I couldn’t agree more with your editorial on Premier Christy Clark’s stinging rebuke at the polls.

I agree that one key reason for B.C. Liberal losses was Clark’s inability to shake the perception that her government was working on behalf of corporations and not the rest of us.

In any event, the Liberals appear to have lost their social licence to continue with the mega-projects Clark had begun that were strongly opposed by both her opponents in the election.

An obvious place to start discussions would be over the Site C hydroelectric dam project.

Both Green Party Leader Andrew Weaver and NDP Leader John Horgan ran on platforms that would have had the project stopped. Clearly, Clark can no longer drive Site C to her so-called “point of no return.”

One compromise for her would be to pause construction and send the project for an independent review by the B.C. Utilities Commission, with appropriate procedural and other safeguards.

Everybody would get something: The NDP gets the review it was seeking. The Greens get the work stoppage they need. The Liberals get to listen to the electorate and see if the sworn evidence will support the project. B.C. Hydro would enter no new contracts.

The public would be assured that further potentially unnecessary ruination of farmland and desecration and permanent destruction of First Nations sacred sites would be halted, and the expropriations of local farmland delayed until a proper review is completed and the electorate satisfied. Steve Gray Victoria