LOSE-LOSE A POSSIBILITY IN NDP SITE C DECISION
Economic, fiscal, political challenges in play as government weighs options
With decision day approaching on Site C, the project team at B.C. Hydro has posted one of its fortnightly updates on what is happening at the most controversial construction site in the province.
The latest construction schedule covers the period Oct. 30 to Nov. 13, flanking Wednesday’s release of the B.C. Utilities Commission findings on Site C as well as the start of NDP cabinet deliberations on whether to complete, cancel or pause the project.
As befits a work site where spending has been running at an average of $2 million a day, the answer to what has been happening would appear to be “rather a lot.”
Excavation will continue on the north and south banks. Ditto on the north and south cofferdams. Work will continue on the south bank drainage tunnel. “This includes drilling and blasting.”
Work is also underway on the foundation for the power house. The contractor of the turbines and generators has started operations at the onsite manufacturing facility and construction is underway for a railway siding that will link to the CN mainline nearby.
Hydro is still working out how to deal with an abandoned natural gas well that was uncovered on the south bank. It is also assessing the archeological (meaning First Nations) impact of the proposed rerouting of Highway 29 on the north bank. Meanwhile, local residents are being cautioned about heavy truck traffic hauling rip-rap from area quarries.
“Day, night and weekend shifts are anticipated for the duration of the project,” concluded the update, underscoring the irony that the New Democrats have allowed construction to proceed even as they consider whether to undo all of it by killing the project outright.
The aforementioned “duration of the project” might be no longer than the end of the year, Premier John Horgan having signalled this week that the cabinet will make the final call later this month or early next.
But if killing the project really is a possibility — many would say a “likelihood” — why go on spending money at the rate of $60 million a month while you prepare to slam on the brakes and throw the whole thing in reverse?
One imagines the resulting Un-Construction update from the Site C project team. River banks restored. Tunnels filled in. Machine shop dismantled. Heavy trucks hauling all that rip-rap back to the quarry.
Still, give Horgan and the New Democrats credit for keeping an open mind. Their partners in power-sharing, the Greens, wanted Site C killed on Day 1.
As to what happens next, the New Democrats put out a brief statement in anticipation of Wednesday’s release from the commission: “Government will take the time necessary to fully review the BCUC’s findings and other issues outside the scope of the review. Government will also engage further with First Nations.”
The latter, Horgan confirmed Tuesday, will include in-person consultations with affected First Nations by Scott Fraser, the NDP minister of Indigenous Relations and Reconciliation.
But Hydro has already gone to extraordinary lengths to address the court-imposed duty to consult and accommodate First Nations whose interests and traditional territories would be affected by Site C.
The Crown corporation concluded benefit-sharing and compensation agreements with six First Nations in the region.
This record of bargaining in good faith was upheld by the courts themselves — the B.C. Court of Appeal, the Federal Court of Appeal and, in effect by the Supreme Court of Canada, which refused to hear First Nation appeals against the lower court rulings.
The courts also faulted the two First Nations challenging the project — West Moberly and Prophet River — for refusing to engage in consultations at any reasonable level.
Against that backdrop, the coming round of consultations with First Nations could build on the courtapproved record of progress to date.
Or it may be back to square one.
The NDP-led consultations will be shaped by the new government’s embrace of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, a political declaration that accords First Nations a veto in all but name over development within their traditional territories.
In anticipation that the New Democrats might be headed down the road to cancellation or suspension of the project, one of the six First Nations that signed deals with Hydro has served notice of its own.
“Site C provided a watershed moment in the relationship between McLeod Lake Indian Band and B.C. Hydro by acknowledging and accommodating past impacts and establishing a new working relationship,” wrote the leadership of the First Nation in a submission to the utilities commission.
The resulting agreement between the two, concluded in spring 2016, “advanced reconciliation. Suspension or termination of Site C would unwind that progress (and) give rise to significant hardships. McLeod Lake members and businesses would lose opportunities that could not be replaced.”
If the New Democrats do indeed go that route, McLeod Lake believes it would be entitled to accommodation of its own, including “reparations.” The other five First Nations with similar agreements might take the same position.
Not an easy call to make if the government is serious about accommodating all First Nations, not just the ones that want it to reverse direction on Site C.
Then again, however the New Democrats decide to proceed raises multiple challenges — economic, fiscal and political.
Depending on how long Horgan and his ministers last in government, the coming decision on Site C may be the toughest any of them will face.
McLeod Lake Indian Band believes it would be entitled to accommodation of its own, including ‘reparations,’ if the Site C hydro project is shelved.