B.C. ‘making the best of a bad situation,’ pushes forward with $10.7B Site C dam

NDP gets backlash for ‘about-face’ while it cites $4B cost to cancel power project

CALGARY Despite entrenched opposition and ballooning costs, British Columbia will finish construction on the massive and controversial Site C hydroelectric dam.

“This is not a project that we favoured, it’s not a project that we would have started,” B.C. Premier John Horgan said Monday in Victoria, adding he knew many British Columbians would be disappointed in the decision but that “proceeding is the best way forward.”

Groups in favour and groups opposed to the project were surprised Monday morning by the decision, especially given the B.C. NDP had criticized Site C for years in opposition and during the election campaign earlier this year.

Horgan admitted that he had criticized the former Liberal government in the province for commissioning the project in the first place and noted that his NDP had vowed to conduct a review of its costs after forming government this year.

Indeed, the B.C. Utilities Commission published its final report on Site C’s costs last month, which found that cancelling Site C and commissioning a suite of alternative power projects would cost roughly the same amount as completing the dam on the Peace River near Fort Saint John, B.C.

Site C, the third in a series of hydroelectric dams on the Peace River, is expected to be finished in 2024 and will produce 5,100 gigawatt hours of electricity in the province per year.

Horgan described his government’s decision to complete the project at an expected cost of $10.7 billion as “making the best of a bad situation” because the cost to cancel the under-construction power project would be $4 billion.

He said his government wanted to allocate more funds to schools and hospitals and, “If we absorb $4 billion in debt, we couldn’t do that.”

Opposed groups immediately criticized the decision, including the Peace Valley Landowner Association and the Sierra Club BC, which warned Horgan’s announcement could result in a backlash against the NDP from longtime supporters.

“The utilities commission made it clear there are alternatives to the Site C dam and those alternatives might be cheaper,” Sierra Club spokesperson Galen Armstrong said, adding that he was “really, really disappointed.”

“This is a very, very divisive issue,” Horgan said as he made his announcement, which is expected to cause rifts within the government and has already caused a fallout with the B.C. Green Party.

Green Party leader Andrew Weaver, who helped the minority NDP oust the long-ruling Liberals and form government this year, condemned the decision. “It is fiscally reckless to continue with Site C and my colleagues and I did everything we could to make this clear to the government,” Weaver said.

While the decision is expected to cause strains within the government and between the NDP and Greens, it was also met with praise from pro-business groups.

“I think the economic case was quite compelling. Cancelling it would have meant billions of dollars in costs that the taxpayers of B.C. would have been on the hook for,” Chris Gardner, president of the Independent Contractors and Businesses Association said. He said his group was frustrated the NDP undertook a review of Site C at all given that an independent panel had studied it.

“They did fight this project very hard and this is an about-face,” Gardner said of the NDP’s position on the project.

“They have made a principled and responsible decision,” Resource Works executive director Stewart Muir said, adding “vociferous public discussion” in B.C. over Site C was overblown especially given that the project is actually smaller than existing hydroelectric dams in the province.