Westside wants power back
Councillors felt better about their chances when Christy Clark was premier
The City of West Kelowna will encourage BC Hydro to expedite construction of a second power line to the community.
Some city councillors are fearful the long-sought project, despite being studied for several years, is no long a priority of the utility and might never get built.
“There doesn’t seem to be any urgency to it,” Coun. Doug Findlater said at Tuesday’s meeting.
“There was urgency at one time, when our MLA was pitching for it, and she happened to be the premier,” Findlater said, referring to former West Kelowna MLA and Liberal premier Christy Clark.
“Now, there doesn’t seem to be the same kind of interest and commitment at the political level.”
Since the NDP formed government last year, the projected completion date for the second power line has been pushed back to 2025 from 2020, at the earliest.
BC Hydro spokeswoman Sue Foster said the second power line is a “big project” and it could take as long as two more years just to gather the necessary data for it to proceed, even after a preferred alternative is selected.
Coun. Rick de Jong said he understood the complexity of the proposal, but suggested he shared Findlater’s frustration at the successive pushing back of the completion timetable.
“Quite frankly, I’m ready to get ’er done,” de Jong said. “Choose a route and move forward.”
After looking at three options for the second line, BC Hydro says it will formally choose one early in 2019. The most likely route is from a substation in the Nicola Valley south of Merritt.
A second line would improve capacity and provide redundancy so prolonged power outages like the ones that have plagued the Westside in the past would not happen again.
At de Jong’s suggestion, the city will write a letter to BC Hydro in advance of the utility’s board of directors meeting in February urging the second line be constructed “as soon as possible.”
Of the letter-writing plan, Foster gave a thumb’s up to council and said: “We’re coming up to a critical decision and having a letter providing your feedback on a preferred alternative would be great.”