Straight Talk

Site C dam critics occupy Vancouver offices of cabinet ministers George Heyman and David Eby

by Charlie Smith on December 7th, 2017 at 1:29 PM
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      Prior to the provincial election, one of the most articulate critics of the Site C dam was the NDP MLA for Vancouver-Fairview, George Heyman.

      "The problem with Site C is the Liberals went ahead and said they wanted to build it," Heyman told the Straight in 2014. "They subjected it to environmental review by a joint review panel, but they [panellists] were expressly precluded from comparing it to other sources of power, like small-scale wind and solar, or geothermal, which is not so small-scale."

      At the time, he claimed that the government conducted "a little accounting sleight of hand" by lowballing the estimated kilowatt-hour price of power from the dam, which is being built along the Peace River near Fort St. John.

      Earlier this year, Heyman was appointed as the minister of environment and climate change in the new NDP government. And with the cabinet on the verge of making an announcement on the future of the Site C dam, protesters decided today to occupy the Vancouver constituency offices of Heyman and Attorney General David Eby.

      The decision on the dam could come as soon as Friday (December 8).

      Prior to the election, the B.C. NDP promised to subject the $8.8-billion project to an expedited review by the B.C. Utilities Commission.

      This review declared that the project has gone over budget and may end up costing more than $10 billion.

      The reviewers also concluded that "alternative energy sources such as wind, geothermal and industrial curtailment could provide similar benefits to ratepayers as the Site C project with an equal or lower Energy Unit Cost".

      On December 6, the Union of B.C. Indian Chiefs and the Prophet River and West Moberly First Nations issued a news release urging Premier John Horgan's cabinet to "immediately and unapologetically cancel the project".

      “Only two years into a nine-year construction schedule, Site C is estimated to cost up to $12.5 billion to complete, about double the project’s budget when it was first announced by the BC Liberals,” Prophet River Chief Lynette Tsakoza said.

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