Because that's what it is going to take to beat back the threat of independent power producers (IPPs) and the run-of-river bonanza currently taking place in the province, warned speakers at the June 11 Run-of-River Rally held at the Invermere Community Hall. More than 125 people heard a series of speakers, including renowned former radio talk show host and Socred government cabinet minister Rafe Mair, present a variety of warnings as to why IPP run-of-river proposals are terrible ideas.
The evening, masterfully emceed by Bill Cropper, was kicked off by Columbia River-Revelstoke MLA Norm Macdonald, who is leading a charge against run-of-river proposals, spurred on by a flurry of opposition activity in the Golden area.
“In just one month, more than 1,000 people in the Golden area signed a petition stating their opposition to planned river-diversion projects on Blaeberry River, Cedar Creek and Kicking Horse River. The petition also calls for a two-year moratorium on all independent power developments across British Columbia until a more thorough environmental review can be completed on the cumulative impacts of these projects,” Macdonald stated prior to the rally.
Kimberley resident and Wildsight director Dave Quinn localized the issue for those in attendance, including a busload of Council of Canadians members from Golden, by stating his views on the Purcell Green Power Inc./Axor Group (PGPI) proposal for a 90.5 megawatt, two run-of-river facilities project on Glacier and Howser Creeks in the West Kootenay, located north of Argenta. The project will include a 91.5-km transmission line running up and over the Purcell Mountains and down to Invermere, where it will feed into the BC Hydro sub-station.
The PGPI project is currently before an Environmental Assessment Office review, which Quinn said amounts to a “yes, but… document. It's a loaded process from the beginning” that is designed to provide approvals with a few conditions.
For Kootenay residents to successfully halt the PGPI proposal, there needs to be a rallying turnout to upcoming open houses, expected to be held in July or August, like that held in late March in Pitt Meadows, where more than 1,000 people turned out to speak against a proposal to establish a series of run-of-river projects on the Upper Pitt River.
“That's what we need to do,” Quinn said of turning out to voice opposition. “Tell your dog, bring your gramma — keep the Kootenays wild.”
Quinn was followed by Sage Aaron, a Canadian Office and Professional Employees' Union (No. 378) director, who warned that run-of-river proposals threaten British Columbia's ability to provide public power for its citizens. A union that represents BC Hydro (BCH) employees, Aaron said the Gordon Campbell provincial government is taking a “stealth approach” to privatizing BC Hydro, noting that one-third of BCH has already been sold.
“Make no mistake, our government is dismantling public power, piece by piece” and the B.C. Energy Plan, enacted in February 2007, is a legislative tool aiding in that goal.
“It forces BC Hydro to assume too many risks,” which is what private power suppliers want, Aaron said, adding, “run-of-river is green only in terms of GHGs (greenhouse gas emissions).”
That set the table for Mair, who explained his extensive environmental track record, including his stint as a Minister of Environment, before attacking the Citizens for Green Energy, a group stating it favours IPP/run-of-river power generation.
Comprised of people with almost no experience in hydroelectric power generation, engineering, ecology or environmental backgrounds, that group “shows that Orwellianism lives,” Mair cracked. “I'll stake my environmental record against yours anytime.”
Mair said the run-of-river issues is much deeper than just the establishment of a series of power generating facilities, with about 500 applications for such projects currently on the books, it's about giving away British Columbia's power and water rights to private corporations.
Joe Foy received several rounds of applause for his impassioned address about the IPP run-of-river proposals in B.C., which he likened to a gold rush. More than 125 people attended the June 11 rally, which featured locally-catered food and music, as well as a series of speakers, all asking those in attendance to write letters to the government and to newspapers. Ian Cobb/Echo photos
Be heard: Writing campaign urged
“Bad policies of a bad government can be undone” but any damage done by any of the proposed IPP projects ìwill be permanent — it's for all time,” Mair said, adding, “We have to make this a political issue and not a party issue.”
To anchor that statement, he noted he's a former Socred working with Macdonald, an NDP MLA.
Mair hypothesized that Campbell, who he repeatedly called an “autocrat,” and company, will keep pushing their BCH privatization agenda forward until the Crown corporation is so deeply awash in debt that it will default on the loans and be sold.
And B.C. residents can expect Campbell's “woeful announcement” that the debt can't be paid off and so a sale is the only way B.C. taxpayers can be spared.
“We now have a power system that is the envy of the world” but if the public loses its grip on BCH, “we are literally sending our schools and hospitals and environment down the river to the Americans,” he said, pointing at all the money such institutions realize from BCH.
Along with giving away our power to private interests, we will be handing over a great many of our rivers and creeks, which once underway will be impossible to stop, Mair said, noting that B.C. taxpayers were in no way consulted on any of this business.
“You weren't consulted — you haven't been consulted,” he said, stating the provincial government's attitude is “the public be damned — pun intended.”
The final speaker was Western Canadian Wilderness Committee director Joe Foy, who said the fight to keep IPPs at bay and B.C.'s waterways the domain of all British Columbians, is a war. The Upper Pitt decision, where the government swiftly acted after observing the intense and large-scale opposition to the plans, was merely a battle won in the war.
“Controlled anger is necessary, sometimes,” Foy said, noting that is what it took at Pitt Meadows, which would have rolled forward were it not for the outcry.
The Upper Pitt IPP proposal called for the damming of all eight tributaries of the Upper Pitt River, which Foy said was “insanity,” especially in the light of the fact that it was also “right on top of prime salmon habitat.”
What made the Upper Pitt situation so disturbing was the fact that at the open house, hosted by the IPP-pursuing company, “the company was completely in charge. Remember that. The government people (ministry bureaucrats) could not speak until it was cleared by the company people. It will happen here, too. When you hear stuff like that, you should be very angry. It's absolutely shameful. The companies do not own our rivers and streams — yet,” Foy said, earning a loud round of applause.
And that is why the public must become engaged in this “war,” he continued.
“The government has not figured out how to remove the tongues from our heads, yet,” even if it has successfully silenced Ministry of Environment biologists and other relevant experts.
“It falls to us as individuals to show up, to write (letters to the editor) and speak up,” Foy urged.
Macdonald said he also urges residents to become involved.
“I have travelled across the constituency talking to people about the Premier's plan to sell off our rivers and people are shocked that the government would even consider such a giveaway. When people come to understand exactly what is planned for our rivers they always ask what they can do to stop it,” Macdonald said, noting he encourages constituents to write letters or emails to the Minister of Energy (EMPR.Minister@gov.bc.ca) and the Minister of Environment (env.minister@gov.bc.ca), and to attend public events and hearings to show their opposition.
Quinn said the Glacier-Howser project proposal’s environmental assessment review will be completed in the next couple of months and that the public will have 45 days after that to comment on a 1,200-page document.
Open houses be will then held in Kaslo, Argenta and Invermere, which he paused to chuckle about. “Big population centres, there,” he cracked.
It is at those open houses where the public must become as engaged as possible, Quinn said, and make a statement, similar to what happened at Pitt Meadows.