Site C’s energy needed now and for years to come

Every day, Greater Vancouver is changing, growing and evolving — whether it’s expanding our trade connections to get our natural resources to market, welcoming more than a million new people to our province over the next 20 years or inspiring the ideas that will fuel the next generation of technology and creativity.

For decades, we’ve benefited from low-cost hydroelectric power. In fact, many resource industries in B.C. today are built on this competitive advantage. As our economy continues to grow and change, building reliable, new energy infrastructure is critical to providing the certainty that our industries and businesses need to invest and expand.

That’s why the Greater Vancouver Board of Trade (GVBOT) believes the Site C Clean Energy Project is so crucially important. It will provide 100 years of reliable, clean, low-cost power — it’s critical infrastructure that’s needed so our economy can keep growing and creating jobs.

That’s also why I was so disappointed to read the recent report by the University of B.C.’s program on water governance. Far from being an objective view of the best way to meet the energy needs of our growing economy and population, this report is irresponsible in its analysis and deliberately timed to impact a provincial election.

The report deliberately uses an outdated unit energy cost for Site C that is 40-per-cent higher than the actual unit energy cost for the project.

It then compares this inflated cost to an alternative portfolio of energy resources that relies on generating significant energy savings through charging commercial businesses a two-tiered rate — a structure that has been proven so ineffective at reducing energy consumption that the B.C. Utilities Commission recently approved a return to the flat-rate structure, with the strong support of customers.

Worse yet, the authors of the report aren’t qualified to conduct energy planning analysis. In fact, in a recent decision, Justice Robert Sewell rejected a similar analysis by one of the report’s authors.

Site C is the most-studied project in B.C.’s history. As the third dam on the Peace River, utilizing the existing Williston Reservoir and its vast amount of energy storage capability, it’s by far the most cost-effective, environmentally sensible way to generate the reliable, clean energy that our province needs to grow.

We can’t afford to be reckless when it comes to energy planning in B.C. We need Site C and any debate on the project should be objective and fully informed. The industries, businesses and communities depending on secure energy infrastructure for their futures deserve no less.

The GVBOT continues to support Site C because the project will meet the long-term electricity needs of B.C.’s residential, commercial and industrial customers.

When complete in 2024, it will benefit all of us in B.C. by providing cost-effective, clean and reliable power for more than 100 years. With construction in advanced stages, the project is providing an economic boost for northern B.C. and our entire province at a time when it’s greatly needed.