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'Kicked in the Teeth' at BC Hydro

Workers in the trenches say mass job cuts would create more havoc than savings.

By Ben Christopher, 29 Aug 2011, TheTyee.ca

Men working on Hydro lines, electrical lines

Jobs on the line: confusion, fear and anger at BC Hydro.

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Two weeks have passed since the Clark government called upon BC Hydro to save money by cutting as many as 1,200 jobs. The study making the recommendation, titled "Review of BC Hydro," triggered immediate outraged response from unions representing BC Hydro workers.

Missing from the conversation so far have been people who go to work every day inside BC Hydro.

Five of those workers spoke with The Tyee about what they think is wrong with BC Hydro, the government report and the news coverage of it all so far.

From these conversations emerged a picture of a workforce wracked by uncertainty about how many jobs will actually be axed and confusion about where the fat supposedly lies in their ranks.

They warned that contracting out jobs will create false savings, cripple planning and eventually reduce BC Hydro to bare bones.

And they cited what they said were the biggest threats to BC Hydro and its ratepayers -– a billion dollar Smart Meter program and high priced contracts with private power producers locked in by order of the BC Liberal government.

If the workers interviewed by The Tyee are typical, morale is plummeting inside BC Hydro as employees feel victimized and belittled in media coverage flowing from the review.

Unknowns

Maciek Dobrowolski, the only BC Hydro worker who agreed to be identified by name for this story, was on vacation when the government released its bombshell. First he read about it like everyone else in that day's news. Then the emails from frantic coworkers came tumbling into his inbox.

Dobrowolski works at the Nanaimo District office as a design technologist.

If a new building needs power, he is the guy who figures out how to make the connection. Asked how long he's been helping in this way to design the piecemeal expansion of the province's electrical grid, his answer comes quick and precise: "Three years and three months." He is 27 years old.

Over the course of the last two weeks, says Dobrowolski, the atmosphere has been notably muted around the office.

"We hear all these things in the media and then we hear them again internally from our own management, but there's a lot of gray area, a lot of unknowns still," he says.

One of these unknowns sticks out above the rest: how many of Hydro's approximately 6,000 employees will still have their jobs by the end of the year?

About that, the government's 124 page report is surprisingly vague. Buried on page 43 is the call for "a more reasonable staffing level" at BC Hydro of 4,800. As to how those cuts should be made, the panel alludes to "utilizing internal and external resources" along with "direct reductions."

To confuse matters more, in a conference call held immediately following the publication of the report, BC Hydro CEO David Cobb reportedly told staff members that the implied cut of 1,200 was unrealistic; he expected a final figure closer to 350 over the course of three years.

"There has been no clear message," said one worker in BC Hydro's legal department. "The review is out of the bag, but it would be nice to have some sort of clarity one way or the other."

The company is expected to announce the exact figure and composition of any layoffs by the end of September.

Stretched already by Hydro's agenda

All the workers interviewed said they are mystified to hear that BC Hydro's workforce is targeted for reduction despite a need to shore up the energy producing capacity of the corporation.

"It just doesn't make sense to me to cut jobs when you want to do expansion and grid revamping and grid improvement," said the legal department worker who has seen a rise in infrastructure work in recent years.

A worker in BC Hydro's design department said, "My department, we're already really short-staffed." With limits on overtime pay already in effect in some departments, she said, workers can be hard pressed to get jobs done on time.

As she sees it, the government is asking the impossible in insisting that the company simultaneously reduce its workforce, cut costs, moderate rate hikes and provide high quality service. Even now, before the coming layoffs, she and her colleagues are constantly going over deadline on assignments for clients.

"Customers complain to their MLAs and it just gets escalated," she said. "It's like they're setting us up for failure."

The BC Hydro review cites various statistics in painting a picture of a corporation that employs too many workers at too high a cost. Example: "Between 2006 and 2010, BC Hydro experienced a 41 per cent employee growth."

But an analysis by COPE 378 of the ratio of workers to revenue at BC Hydro counters that the Crown corporation's employees "are among the most productive and profitable in British Columbia."

BC Hydro workers interviewed by The Tyee pointed out the company's existing network of physical infrastructure, from the point of power generation all the way to the end-user, is in need of a long-term -- and long overdue -- overhaul. This, they say, justifies the dramatic increase in employment noted by the B.C. government's review.

It's a point substantiated by the report itself, which clearly identifies "increased maintenance on aging infrastructure and increased volume of work resulting" as the main cause of rising operating costs.

Or, as David Black, president of COPE 378, put it, "Those chickens are coming home to roost."

"There's a huge increase in the amount of maintenance we have because for the past 30 years, BC Hydro has not looked at its infrastructure," confirmed BC Hydro worker Dobrowolski.

"The general impression from the design community," said Dobrowolski, "is that we're looking for more help, we have a huge amount of work to do, and then this review comes out asking us to lay off more employees. Really, it's confusing."

The other workforce

Some of the workers who spoke to The Tyee predicted that the shortfall between the work required and the labour available will be filled by outside contract workers. In fact, that's part of the business model already.

According to Jim Greenwell, senior assistant business manager for the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers local 258, in many areas, these "contractors that work for Hydro are considered the contingent workforce."

From a managerial perspective, it's easy to see the appeal of private contractors. Without incurring any of the supplemental costs of a full-time employee -- from pensions to pens and paper -- contractors give the company flexibility in responding to fluctuations in customer demand.

Yet for their variable services contractors are paid more -- in some cases three times more -- than their in-house counterparts.

"They need some work done and they need it done fast so, at inflated cost, they give it to a contractor," explained Dobrowolski. "If they were to hire an employee, that employee would be there for 40 years."

One Hydro worker who spoke to The Tyee has watched his employer's increased dependency on this outside "contingent workforce" with growing distrust. He doesn't perceive the government's recommendations to cut jobs as a one-off response to specific economic or business conditions. He sees it as the latest step in an effort to emaciate the full-time staff at the Crown corporation.

This worker emphasized that his opposition to further contract work isn't solely about self-preservation.

In his area of grid design, those who are paid per job do not have an incentive to build in additional capacity in the anticipation of further development.

"The consultant is making extra money and the developer is making extra money as well because they don't have to build as much infrastructure," he explained. "I think it's going to end up costing the ratepayer a lot more down the road."

The review of Hydro does address some of the perceived inefficiencies behind BC Hydro's use of contractors. Calling for the company to "implement stronger policy to ensure appropriate use of contract services," the report recommends that the use of outside sources be prohibited where Hydro employees could perform the same job at the same cost.

Still, some are unconvinced. Dobrowolski believes BC's Liberal government holds a philosophical preference for contractors.

"It's based on ideology," concurred David Black of COPE 378. "They'll eliminate the jobs of 1,000 people, but replace them with 1,200 contractors."

Where might that lead? One of the workers expressed his pessimism this way: "You're going to see a lot of people doing work out there for BC Hydro but not wearing a BC Hydro badge."

Over time that approach will turn BC Hydro "into a skeleton."

Who screwed up?

As workers throughout Hydro wait for the axe to fall, their anxiety has been compounded by a sense their reputation is taking a beating in the public eye.

"I think the most disappointing part of it has been the media and how they latched onto the 'Hydro Fat Cat' story," said one worker. He believes the government's report has "trashed BC Hydro," unfairly portraying the workforce as beneficiaries of union privilege -- overpaid, underworked and over-entitled.

"But it's the government's screw-ups that have put us in this situation here," said the worker. Screw ups, he said, like the Smart Metering Program and the long-term energy contracts signed with independent power producers. Those contracts guarantee those private companies, most of them owned by entities outside of B.C., purchase prices for energy far above the going rate.

Another worker called those IPP agreements "a big boondoggle."

Indeed, the five employees from across the province were united in their view that the troubles facing BC Hydro have little to do with the company's work force and almost everything to do with politics.

"There are systemic issues that aren't being addressed," said one worker. "They'll fire a bunch of people at Hydro but will that really change things?"

The workers doubted even deep job cuts would deliver significant savings to BC Hydro customers, given that the government's review of BC Hydro calculates that labour costs, including overtime pay, sick pay and compensation benefits, will account for just 14 per cent of the company's budgeted costs for next year.

'Feeling victimized'

In the words of the report, downsizing to meet the necessary staffing levels presents "a challenging target" to the Crown corporation.

But one IT worker at Hydro offered The Tyee a different way of describing it: "We've really been screwed."

"Management, staff, all BC Hydro employees are feeling victimized," said the IT worker, who has been employed by Hydro for two decades. "The rationale for many of the changes, especially the ones that affect the staff at BC Hydro, are not making a lot of sense to the people there being affected"

A female employee interviewed by The Tyee lives in the Lower Mainland, has a husband whose job is also under the chopping block, and said the projected workforce cuts have her worried about making mortgage payments.

Her concerns are echoed by the legal department worker. He and his partner had a baby last summer, and are looking for a new house. Now they are holding their breath to see if they can plan for their future.

Another worker said the threat of cutting BC Hydro's workforce by 20 per cent had left him "galvanized." He has worked at the company for two decades and held six different positions within the company. He has weathered every one of the staff reorganizations that seem to sweep through Hydro with every election and he survived last year's merger with the BC Transmission Corporation.

But the changes proposed by the government report, he said, will be the most severe.

What is being felt by this worker, and others in the trenches with him, was betrayal -- "the worst emotion that a human being can experience."

"We have very dedicated people here who go beyond what is required of them," he said. "Because they believe in the company, they like to make a contribution, they know the importance of BC Hydro to the province."

"Now it feels like we've been kicked in the teeth for our efforts." [Tyee]

Ben Christopher reports for The Tyee.

33 Comments:

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  • terminalcitygirl

    38 weeks ago

    Of course it's the plan

    How many more public resources are going to be destroyed and/or sold before the people of BC wake up to the Liberal plan?! Good God the devastation they've created in just 10 short years in unimaginable... we've no idea how bad these "decisions" of theirs are going to get for all of us. From BC Rail to IPPs to P3's, we are so screwed. Busting the unions and dismantling BC Ferries and BC Hydro will pretty much take care of all our public assets. Will the Liberals be able to stay in power long enough to finish what they've started? God, let's hope not. They are bankrupting our province, giving our assets to their friends. We need an uprising. Seriously. They need to be stopped.

  • Cynic

    38 weeks ago

    The Liberals are the plan

    The Liberals are the plan implementers. Gordon Campbell goes to the Bilderberg meeting, gets educated, and for doing the elite's bidding gets handsomely rewarded with a plum appointment to Britain. Have no doubt, Gordo is going to become very wealthy. It's all so sickening.

    I second the above call for an uprising.

  • Van Isle

    38 weeks ago

    There is only one word to

    There is only one word to describe BC Hydro's problem and that's MISMANAGEMENT. I think it was done on purpose so it would be easier to sell off different sections of the corporation. The Liberals have done the same thing to BC Ferries. Just read "The Confessions of an Economic Hitman". Gordo and his henchmen/women should be charged for treason; economic treason.

  • jimmy_laroux

    38 weeks ago

    According to Christy Clark...

    "Firing up job creation has to be the top priority for strengthening our economy. It is also the most important thing we can do to help BC families." But not the families of BC Hydro workers, it seems. Laying-off 1200 employees at BC Hydro seems an odd way to start "firing up job creation".

  • raging senior

    38 weeks ago

    Liberal's cure

    The Liberal cure for all of their screwups is to attack the workforce, either get rid of it -BC RAIL- HEU workers mostly women in low paying jobs get their contract trashed and contracting out the work for $10.00 per hour, so much for families first. The results of poorly trained contractors cleaning hospitals had been documented by the Union, does the Government care, NO! The Liberals have taken $284 million out of the Education system each year since 2002, the Liberals say children are our greatest asset yet they rob the Education system and try to villify the teachers saying they are not doing a good enough job - just ask the Fraser Institute, the Government's source of information. I think we should cut the wages of Cabinet ministers, their deputies and see if they will do better. I would have included Hydro but the Liberals have not yet put Hydro on life support.

  • jimmy_laroux

    38 weeks ago

    Independent Power Producers and Self-sufficiency

    According to BC Hydro:

    Quote:
    The Self-Sufficiency requirements of the CEA obligate BC Hydro to have rights to electricity from resources in B.C. sufficient to meet expected load requirements under critical water conditions1 by 2016 and to exceed that volume by 3,000 GWh/yr by 2020. As BC Hydro meets these requirements, there will be a surplus of energy in most years... In meeting the self-sufficiency requirements, BC Hydro is expected to have an energy surplus of about 8,000 GWh/yr under average water conditions.

    BC Hydro's CEO had this to say about the BC Liberal plan to force self-sufficiency on BC Hydro by purchasing high-priced IPP electricity: "If it doesn't change, it would be hundreds of millions of dollars per year that we would be spending of our ratepayers' money with no value in return... The way the self-sufficiency policy is defined now ... would require us to buy far more long-term power than we need." Energy commitments in 2011 were $43 billion (p.80), up from 17 billion in 2010 (p.108).

    The BC Liberals are forcing BC Hydro to buy vastly more electricity than BC needs, and the profits are flowing into the pockets of BC Liberal donors. The result is a 50% increase in rates over 5 years, and layoffs of vital BC Hydro employees at a time when BC can least afford them. This is the harvest of BC Liberal corruption and incompetence.

  • A Voice

    38 weeks ago

    Disgusted

    Do employees at Hydro make alot of money? Yes, of course they do, IS this really the problem at Hydro, unless you are an idiot and listen to the spin by media, no, the problem is Smart meters and buying over priced power from IPP's PERIOD, THATS IT!!!
    Once again, Hydro, our jewel, is being worked over by BS politics from the Liberals who have done every thing in their power to dismantle and destroy this utility owned by British Columbians. IS this what you want, to pay market rates for electrical, shoot, we already pay too much for petroleum products even though it is produced in Canada, is this where we want our electrical to go? Time to stand and be counted you bunch of sheep.

  • edh

    38 weeks ago

    Where's the guy who did this?

    Where's the guy who did most of this? Why he's got a cushy soft job far away in a land of mega expense accounts and cocktail parties.

  • lizroy

    38 weeks ago

    Toothless BC

    Those reading and subscribing to Tyee have done their homework with regard to dismantling of unions, middle class but how can we awaken others? When I try to explain to others what is 'really' happening they think I'm into conspiracy theories and wave me aside. How do we, as a powerful, informed group inform,educate and empower? I get tired of whistling in the dark.

  • Ed Seedhouse

    38 weeks ago

    It is always so predictable

    It is always so predictable with this government: management screws up, workers get fired. Yeah, that works.

  • Henry Dorsett Case

    38 weeks ago

    1,200 jobs.

    This is ideological rather than rational when unions are destroyed only to pay contractors 3 times the rate of unionized employees.

    Although I suppose eventually once the union is destroyed and all that is left is disparate contractors scrambling to find work from which ever private enterprise(s) own our hydro - at that point the contractor wages will plummet (not to mention safety and quality).

    This "screw-up" or "boondoggle" as it is refereed to is anything but. It is a repeating pattern of the purposeful dismantling of another crown corporation based on failed economics (look south). It only serves to increase the gulf between the rich and the poor.

  • askian

    38 weeks ago

    Accenture vs. Operations

    The billing arm somehow got taken over by Accenture. Accenture originated as the business and technology consulting division of the accounting firm Arthur Andersen. Maybe you remember a little thing called ENRON?
    How and why did they end up controlling the purse strings of BC Hydro?
    Their headquarters are Dublin after moving from Bermuda and the states. It looks like they engaging in the same asset stripping and maintenance deferral activities that the ENRON boys (and girls) were famous for.
    Bring it back home, BC management for BC companies say I. A contractor wants another contract and will build the network with that in mind.

  • steelchef

    38 weeks ago

    'Kicked in the Teeth' at BC Hydro

    "A democracy is always temporary in nature; it simply cannot exist as a permanent form of government. A democracy will continue to exist up until the time that voters discover they can vote themselves generous gifts from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always vote for the candidates who promise the most benefits from the public treasury, with the result that every democracy will finally collapse due to loose fiscal policy, which is always followed by a dictatorship."
    [Alexander Tyler, Scottish history professor, University of Edinburgh, circa 1767]
    "The average age of the world's greatest civilizations from the beginning of history has been about 200 years. During those 200 years, those nations always progressed through the following sequence:
    1. From bondage to spiritual faith;
    2. From spiritual faith to great courage;
    3. From courage to liberty;
    4. From liberty to abundance;
    5. From abundance to complacency;
    6. From complacency to apathy;
    7. From apathy to dependence;
    8. From dependence back into bondage
    This wisdom is certainly borne out historically. The western world would appear to be to be between stages 6 and 8 while much of the middle-east is clearly at stage three.
    What has this to do with BC Hydro? As long as citizens do not feel the need to involve themselves in the democratic process, (by turning out to cast an informed ballot) we will be used and abused by the wealthy/powerful elite. Even the visceral HST debacle only attracted 52% of eligible voters. How many voters give a rat’s ass about Hydro and its workers as long as the lights come on when they throw the switch? All governments are inherently corrupt. Have you ever seen a destitute, former politician?
    The enlightened among us need to redouble our efforts to make governments responsible to the citizenry. It’s about all we will have left to pass on to the grandchildren.
    Hydro workers also need to consider that their union(s) may be stacked with folks who would betray them. I’ve seen this happen more than once in my considerable life experience. Good luck!

  • kootenay

    38 weeks ago

    Final Move Before Privatization

    The most likely senario IMO is the Liberals are getting ready to give BC Hydro away to one of their corporate pals.

    Lay off a 1000 people, reduce the new owners overhead and employement obligations. Also get rid of employees now so that new owners aren't seen in a bad public eye for laying off workers.

    We the citizens of BC will be paying for overpriced IPP power for the rest of our lives and some rich CEO will be rolling in dough.

  • GRVTI ANI ADM

    38 weeks ago

    Another Power Struggle in BC

    As always, when you shove something down people’s throats, they tend to spit it up. We saw it with the HST and we’re seeing it with the new BC Hydro smart meter program.

    fascinatingtales.wordpress.com/2011/08/29/the-smart-meter-part-one/

  • kmdyson

    38 weeks ago

    I wonder when the last straw

    I wonder when the last straw will come for a majority of citizens.... the Hydro workers are just the next group to be victimised for a political and economic ideology that aims to increase the underclass while concentrating the wealth into ever few hands...yes we do need an uprising...and we need to demand that the next government reverses this trend through elimination of the IPPs and the 3P's and the slash and burn of decent union paying jobs...increasing funding to education and health care through taxation of all those corporate welfare recipients the Liberals created in the last decade...

  • jnewcomb

    38 weeks ago

    First Nations, high wages, workers

    No mention in Christopher's article about First Nations, but the report says to cut back on FN expenses too. Thats a treaty problem so negotiation will be important.

    At least with shift to IPPs, more FN hires and the benefits to First Nations whose traditional territories includes the IPPs is significant.

    There have been massive layoffs from BC Hydro in the 1980s with so many of the dam-building employees going as no Site C got built - nor much of anything else during those years.

    I wonder if the workers who are making the $1/4 million per year would complain if more hires actually reduced their HUGE salaries, because less of the massive overtime premiums?

    Vancouver Sun's public sector database shows huge salaries of thousands at BC Hydro + Powerex + BC Transmission: http://www.vancouversun.com/business/public-sector-salaries/index.html

  • OhCanada

    38 weeks ago

    So, what can ...

    ... a $10/hr wage buy you? This is really smart.

    Remove the people from their well paying jobs - after all they are overpaid and underworked, right? Then replace them with folks who are willing to bust their asses for $10/hr. Imagine the purchasing power these folks will have. Not to mention the real pride of people for a company that pays them just barely to live, shows no care for them when they sick - as when you are sick you won't make any money. And pension - forget it really. I'm glad that I'm not 25 looking for work.

    The repercussions of all this have and will have far reaching consequences. Most people aren't willing to look at it nor to understand it. Greed at its fullest (?)

    Maybe Hydro employees need to stick together and shot off the power. I think that is a very powerful bargaining tool to have. People need to realize - electricty, water, rail and transportation - it must stay in public hands. We can't allow this to be sold to private hands!

  • WilliamD

    38 weeks ago

    The problem

    The problem is not the number of workers, but the fact that workers are paid at much higher rates and have many more benefits than similar workers in other organizations. Trim the pay not the workers. To see what workers are paid at BC Hydro, go to: http://www.vancouversun.com/business/public-sector-salaries/index.html

  • Henry Dorsett Case

    38 weeks ago

    WilliamD wrote:

    "The problem is not the number of workers, but the fact that workers are paid at much higher rates and have many more benefits"

    Lets all race to the bottom Billy!

    This is such a phoney BS neocon line it amazes me that people still repeat it. Clearly some people have no shame nor any respect for Canadian families.

    30 years of stagnant wages and corporate welfare has not resulted in a trickle down of wealth - just the opposite (as you well know) is true.

    The absolute shamelessness of people that fight to decrease wages and benefits at this time! Frankly it is traitorous.

    http://www.policyalternatives.ca/projects/growing-gap

  • hopelesslywestcoast

    38 weeks ago

    Same Corporate Crap ... Different Company

    We know all too well what the employees of Hydro feel like.

    Telus axed jobs for similar reasons. 300 Engineering and Technical jobs were sent to India 2 years ago. (Outside contractors are everywhere in the lower mainland on a piece work basis too). I think it interesting that Telus had to temporarily bring back a number of people because Indian Techs couldn't handle the work. (After paying out a separation packages and pensioning off early retirees)

    You always hear the same old story when the execs at the top of any organization feel that their salaries are justified "cause you just have to get the best people" but why isn't that true for the frontline positions?

    Until business schools stop churning out mediocre grads with sheep like vision, we are doomed to hear the same old "solutions" to the high cost of doing business.

    Remember, you always get what you pay for and the cheapest is almost always the dearest .... while the dearest is most often the cheapest in the long run.

  • OwlRol

    38 weeks ago

    Just following the plan

    The mid 90s Fraser Institute report, plastered all over the front page of the Vancouver Sun, is coming to pass, thanks to this B.C., not-Liberal government.

    Two FI recommendations were to privatize the profitable Crown Corporations and to weaken the power of the unions. Nearly fait-accompli. Couldn't privatize B.C. Hydro outright, so split it into three, and place restrictions on the public component to make it a money loser.

    Yeah, those private corporations will surely reduce wages, but don't expect the savings to trickle down to the rate payers. Rather the opposite, rates will increase even more than the recent proposals and no one will be able to track where the money went. As askian pointed out, it surely stinks of ENRON style, rip off tactics.

    But most B.C. residents don't pay much attention until the deed is done and it hits them in the pocketbook, whereupon they tend to accept the mainstream media's message that there is no better or other choice.

  • dave49

    38 weeks ago

    What about the professional side?

    This article and the comments primarily focus on the unionized side of BCHydro. ON the professional side, Hydro has been a merit/education-based by unlike any other I have seen. I had an unsuccessful interview with them years ago and was frankly astounded at what the salary would have been. Look at the list of the highest-paid public servants. The biggest single group is BCH employees and the proportion grows as people get annual increases.

    If you look into it, it seems to be a pattern for the industry. Ontario Hydro, or whatever those companies are now called, has a huge number of highly paid professional staff.

    By the way, I've heard working at Hydro as "wearing the golden chains".

  • kootenay

    38 weeks ago

    Liberal Accountability

    Why is it an affront to certain people when they discover a group of employees makes more money then them. If you successfully eliminate or reduce their wages and benefits, how is that going to benefit you or kids in the future. What bargaining power will you have left to improve your working conditions.

    Call an election Christy please, corporate greed and corrupt politicians are killing our province and robbing our children of their future. You've put the HST on trial, now put your government on trial for their performance, let the people speak.

    Here are a couple of my favorite quotes

    "Guard with jealous attention the public liberty. Suspect everyone who approaches that jewel. Unfortunately, nothing will preserve it
    but downright force. Whenever you give up that force, you are inevitably ruined" ~Patrick Henry

    and

    "Politics is the art of preventing people from taking part in affairs which properly concern them. -- Paul Valery (1871 - 1945)"

  • Conductor274

    38 weeks ago

    BC Rail

    I worked at BC Rail for 25 years and this is exactly what Campbell did to it. They reduced the work force, sold all the old rolling stock, bought new engines, repaired the track and got rid of the intermodel (trucking) department. There is was! Lean mean money making machine given away to the CN which is now controlled by Americans. And don't believe a word the Liberals say. BC Rail was making money almost every year.

  • Vox.Pop

    38 weeks ago

    Real Corporate Democracy

    Time to outsource the Executive Suites at all these Crown Corps & other bogus 'front' organizations that Campbell set up. While we're doing that fire all the directors who are just overpaid Liberal stooges who take the heat for the liberal political decisions. Either re-absorb these spin-offs back into government or call open, public meetings once per year where the public can attend & vote for directors nominated from the floor - wow, democratic AGMs - what a thought.

  • Vox.Pop

    38 weeks ago

    Another Campbell government 'saving'

    I encountered a nice employee today of the BC Safety Authority - I asked him what they did & found out that they are responsible for the safety of gas & electrical installations across BC. I asked him what ministry they reported to & found they have been an "independent, non-profit" organization since Gordo established them in 2004. The BC Government is the only shareholder & appoints the board of directors (surprise, surprise). Now I would have thought this responsibility was central to government & should be in a key ministry but Gordo has used this trick over & over to "reduce the cost of government". I think Gordo should get the Bilderberg Man of the Decade Award (not the one he got in 2010 from his pals in the construction industry).

  • sicntired

    38 weeks ago

    BC Liberal Propaganda

    The hospitals have already felt and are still feeling the heat.Now they've turned their propaganda machine,the mainstream media,against Hydro.They trashed BC Rail.They trashed the Ferry corp.They want a two tiered health care system and their friemds in the private sector to take over the provision of power.This is strange at a time when voices are already calling for a renegotiating of the private ROR power agreements as they are a disaster and will wind up costing taxpayers huge rate increases for power they do not need.As we all were told from the start.Hydro has been one of the truly great legacies that were left to this Province by WAC Bennett.The Liberals were so vilified the last time they ran this Province,the members of my parents generation were sure they would never return in their life time.This is what happens when we fail to teach history to our youth.Soon enough we will see the last of these crooked self aggrandizing political hacks and their corporate owners.Wake up people.Your Province belongs to all of us and it is being sold off piece meal by criminals and gangsters wearing liberal badges and tailored suits.

  • RickW

    38 weeks ago

    lizroy & toothless BC

    As the song says:
    Don't it always seem to go
    That you don't know what you got till it's gone
    When people are paying $200/month for hydro on diminishing incomes, then we will get "excited".

  • Dan the socialist

    38 weeks ago

    How many more public

    How many more public resources are going to be destroyed and/or sold before the people of BC wake up to the Liberal plan?!
    ===========

    Most people are sheep and do not care about the issues like BC Rail, Hydro, ferries or anything else. They believe what the Liberal TV aka Global tells them at 6 pm...

    It is unreal how many uninformed and people that could care less out there but as long as they have their hd tv, 500 channels, belly full of fast food they picked up in their suv all is well...

    Sad really. So many have been brainwashed by tv and consumerism to care about anything else.

  • dave49

    38 weeks ago

    What the cuts are about - nothing but optics

    I was away when this 'report' was released, but I think it all comes down to optics. The Fiberals market and opinion research showed a lot of anti-BC Hydro sentiment, so why not cut the staff by 20%? We've had several multi-billion dollar programs to rebuild the aging power grid and other programs, meaning double digit-rate increases have been announced every year for at least the last three years. Add to that a Smart Meter program that is mandatory! I'm not aware of any other jurisdiction where there is no way to refuse a Smart Meter.

    The Smart Meter program was not touched because it was a P3 and in the pipeline. It would cost too much to shut down* and spoil the reputation of the Liberal government with the business community. Recall that GC & Co. set up a crown corporation called Partnerships BC to promote P3s and that their CEO is one of the ten highest paid 'civil servants' in the province. As far as I can tell, P3s let Gordon Campbell spend money he did not have (like the HST and the gambling casino) by bringing in the private sector as a partial funder. The public still pays the final bill in the end and British studies indicate the life cycle cost of a P3 is higher than an equivalent public project. P3s are a fact of life in Canada now.

    *recall in the early 1990s when the Chretien Liberals promised to cancel the Mulroney Conservatives' military helicopter purchase. Chretien did a good job of diverting public attention from the fact it cost the Canadian taxpayer $500 million in early 1990s dollars. I suspect the penalty clauses in the Smart Meter program contract are pretty large.

    Christy and her crew are playing games with BC Hydro and the public will not benefit in the long run.

  • vegguy

    38 weeks ago

    Reductions at BC Hydro

    Yes there are costs associated with the unnecessary and expensive IPPs and the push for Smart Meters" but beyond that-
    BC Hydro's administrative upper echelon has massively increased over the past 10 -12 years. While the company was being downsized, Upp er management, HR , Purchasing and procurement, accounts payable, and finance have all grown larger & larger. With less staff - all these "services" have increased.
    Hydro used to have 6 VPs- Now they have 17.
    Cutting Staff to save money is possible - if anyone had the guts to do it.
    Upper management plus HR, Finance etc. could easily be cut by more than half. There are easily 1200 high paid executive jobs that could disappear tomorrow with no loss of service or efficiency.
    In fact, things could happen more quickly and easily.

  • Weatherman

    38 weeks ago

    Do your math

    For all those above (too many to list) defending those poor BC Hydro workers, do your math. The number of people making more than $100,000 per year has grown dramatically in the last 5 years. My partner used to work at BCH, and the number of freebies those folks get is unbelieveable. And then a nice government pension at the end. Wow, we should all be so lucky.

    But seriously, mis-guided legislation like SMI, energy self-sufficiency without Burrard Thermal during a five year drought, and neutralizing the Utilities Commission have not helped. That doesn't change the fact the corporation is bloated. From the number of VP's, to the number of engineers, to the number of admin assistants. And make no mistake, unless BCH is directed otherwise, the cuts will start at the bottom.

    Solution: Replace BCH management structure. It's bitter, but it needs to happen. Not ALL their fault, but certainly complicit in the mis-management, and now will not be able to manage out of it, especially when the top guy says "well its only actually 350". Look for lean utility management style, and promote some experience from within with a clear mandate. Keep the people on the tools and in the air, but sorry the folks in the offices gotta take the hit.

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