Editor,
The economics of the Site C dam, as so many experts have been telling us, are terrible. But it doesn’t end there.
The chief executive officer of BC Hydro has now admitted that the project is no longer on time or on budget: it is now at least one year behind schedule, at an estimated cost of $610 million.
We cannot honour our commitments to the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People, while drowning the rights of Treaty 8 under an 83-kilometre long reservoir.
BC Hydro has failed to prove we will need the electricity.
Despite British Columbia’s population growing by over half a million and the economy increasing by 47 per cent over the past 16 years, hydro demand has remained flat.
The claims of 2,500 jobs being at stake are very suspect. These numbers are unsubstantiated and the most recent number provided by the construction contractor is 1,334.
The worldwide average cost of wind and solar power has fallen sharply over the past three years, according to the International Energy Agency.
Storage solutions are coming on fast, with the average cost of lithium-ion batteries falling 73 per cent between 2010 and 2016.
If Site C is built, it will eliminate 7,500 acres of class 1 and 2 farmland. This accounts for nearly 20 per cent of B.C.’s most productive farmland.
The fate of the Site C dam is now in the hands of the new B.C. government. They must do the right thing and cancel this white elephant of a project.
Learn more about Site C at justthedamfacts.ca.
Brian Kennelly
Quesnel