Site C accountability train has left the station

Re: “Lack of oversight plagues Site C dam,” column, Oct. 21. Dermod Travis’s column clearly shows that, to date, the oversight of this project has clearly failed to protect the interests of its main stakeholders: the electricity consumers of B.C. This oversight deficit is matched only by an even-larger accountability deficit.

Those who have failed in their responsibilities to properly oversee the project should be held accountable and not be vindicated by some fortuitous development, such as a sudden conversion from internalcombustion vehicles to electric vehicles, since such a development was unforeseen at the time the politically motivated decision to build Site C was taken.

Of course, no one will be held accountable for the decision to build the dam or for billions of dollars in cost overruns. This is because oversight at B.C. Hydro is the responsibility of a politically appointed board of directors and CEO. And, if this group lacked the capacity to do the job properly in the first place, it would be grossly unfair to hold them accountable for poor performance. Their principal mandate seems to have been to avoid rocking the boat by ever questioning the policies of the government that appointed them.

Similarly, the government made sure that the nominal protector of consumer interests, the B.C. Utilities Commission, would be excluded from any oversight role and therefore powerless to hold any of the principals accountable.

As for the politicians who championed the project, the accountability train has left the station and no one is on board. Charles Woodruff Oak Bay