Hydro paying for no power

Premier John Horgan’s decision to approve continuation of the Site C project has drawn many comments from supporters and those in opposition.

When it was made known that former prime minister Stephen Harper had quietly approved permits and licences for the project after the writ was dropped for the 2015 federal election, and former premier Christy Clark announced in January 2016 that she wanted the Site C project “pushed past the point of no return,” that made my decision not to support Site C very easy.

When Horgan made his announcement of going forward based on cost analysis, there was no mention of the costs of paying independent power producers across the province not to produce power because of over-supply. According to the NDP’s Adrian Dix, in an interview with DeSmog Canada in 2016, Capital Power Corp. is being paid under contract $55 million a year until April of 2022 not to produce power.

According to Dix, independent producers across the province, in communities such as Nanaimo and Prince George, are being told by B.C. Hydro not to produce power. Where has Dix been since his vociferous condemnation of this project one year ago?

There is an enormous amount of information at desmog.ca/site-c-dam-bc.

This is a good opportunity for our friends at Democracy Watch to engage in their excellent investigations.

Don Snell Parksville