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BC Hydro's Amazingly Bad Deal for Ratepayers
We give big firms $15 billion. We get higher prices, no assets, no guarantee of supply.
On July 27 of this year, B.C. Hydro announced the outcome of its 2006 tender call for electricity from private energy developers. The results were startling. Not only had B.C. Hydro agreed to buy three times the power requested in the tender, it had done so at locked-in prices far above projected market rates.
According to its submission to the B.C. Utilities Commission, over the length of the contracts B.C. Hydro and its ratepayers will pour up to $15.6 billion into the pockets of private investors. Yet for all that money, the public gets no assets, no price protection once the contracts expire and no guarantee that private energy interests won't export the electricity in the future.
The 2006 tender call is part of a seismic shift in the way British Columbia produces, buys and sells electricity. It means a bonanza for private energy interests and an enormous financial liability for ordinary B.C. ratepayers.
The deals B.C. Hydro agreed to under the tender will cost between $400 and $500 million every year from 2012 to 2039. Which means higher electricity rates -- 8.1 per cent higher, according to BC Hydro's own calculations. And that's just from this tender. The 2007 tender "call" has already been announced for the purchase of even more private energy. The way the government's Energy Plan is structured, more tender calls are guaranteed to come as energy demand grows in the province.
BC Libs' push to privatize
Since its election in 2001, the B.C. Liberal government has moved to deregulate and privatize B.C.'s electricity system while integrating it with the U.S.-dominated energy market in the Pacific Northwest. The core of that policy was laid out in the 2002 Energy Plan, which prevents B.C. Hydro from building new generation assets, and transforms the Crown corporation from a generator of publicly-owned electricity to a purchaser of energy from the private sector.
The rational for this change is hard to fathom. The old policy worked very well. By generating its own power, B.C. Hydro ensured that ratepayers enjoyed, on average, the second lowest electricity prices in North America. This is because prices were based on the historic cost of production, not the current energy market price. At the same time, B.C. Hydro contributed about three quarters of a billion dollars, annually, to the provincial government from dividends, water rentals and taxes in lieu.
Under the new plan, B.C. Hydro has to buy virtually all its future electrical energy from private power developers. To do this B.C. Hydro has to enter legally binding contracts -- called Energy Purchase Agreements -- with private energy corporations. The agreements lock B.C. Hydro (and B.C. taxpayers) into financial commitments of up to 40 years.
Under the terms of the agreements, B.C. ratepayers have to buy a fixed amount of private energy every year throughout the contract. Because the price of the energy is indexed, meaning it goes up every year, energy investors are guaranteed escalating revenues. But those revenues have to come from somewhere, and in this case, it's the B.C. ratepayers.
But all of this we knew before the outcome of the 2006 tender call was announced in July.
What we didn't know was just how fast the changes were going to happen.
No public discussion
The 2006 energy call originally requested bids from private power developers for 2,700 gigawatt hours (GWh) of electricity. (A GWh is one million kilowatts.) This represents about four per cent of the total energy used in the province each year. But when the results were announced in July, the amount of energy on the table had risen dramatically. At the end of the day, B.C. Hydro had agreed to buy 7,125 GWh (plus an additional 226 Gwh from the Brilliant Expansion program of Columbia Power), three times the size of the original tender call.
B.C. Hydro's explanation for the huge change was simple: B.C.'s projected energy needs had risen significantly. The original call was based on projections made in December 2004. But new information, B.C. Hydro claimed, indicated that there could be a significant shortfall unless it acquired a much larger amount of energy, so the volume it purchased went up.
There are big problems with that rationale. One obvious question is whether it is appropriate to change the volume of energy after a tender call has gone out. But even if you put that one aside (and that's a big if), B.C. Hydro is still a Crown Corporation. When it embarks on a major policy shift, it should engage in widespread public consultation to ensure all options have been properly assessed. Given that the amount of private energy B.C. Hydro committed to purchase in July is so much larger than what was assumed by participants in its major stakeholder consultative process, the Integrated Electricity Planning (IEP) committee (of which this author was a member), only a few months earlier, such a major public discussion was fully warranted.
Options ignored
What's more, even if the forecasts changed, buying that much private energy was by no means the only option available to the government.
It could use the downstream benefits energy from the Columbia River treaty instead of selling it in the U.S.
It could stop private energy exports to ensure that energy produced in B.C. stayed in B.C.
It could expand energy conservation through PowerSmart.
It could review the policy of providing heavily discounted public energy at $37 per MWh to major industrial customers, a policy that dramatically reduces their incentive to conserve.
And, it could let B.C. Hydro build its own new generation plants as it did in the past.
But the size of the tender is only half the story. Because even though B.C. Hydro is buying big, it isn't getting a bulk discount. When B.C. Hydro started work on the tender process in early 2005, energy was going for between $50 and $55 per MWh in the Pacific Northwest market. Previous tender calls, which restricted purchases to private power facilities located in B.C., had resulted in prices in the $56 to $61 per MWh range -- still fairly high. But in the 2006 call, prices were up, way up.
According to B.C. Hydro, the average price over the term of the contracts -- at today's prices -- is $87.50 per MWh delivered to the Lower Mainland. But that number doesn't accurately reflect what ratepayers will pay. For the contracts are inflation indexed. In actual dollars, prices will rise during the term of the contracts to $124 per MWh by 2051.
Locked into double the market price
To put this price in context, B.C. Hydro told the B.C. Utilities Commission in 2004 that the cost of generating energy from its own B.C. Hydroelectric facilities was only $5.43 per MWh. That cost reflected investments made in the 1960s and 1970s and would obviously be considerably higher today if B.C. Hydro were allowed to make new investments again. But it underscores how cheap our public electricity is over the long term if we own the generation assets. And there's no reason it wouldn't be cheaper than private energy even in the short term.
During B.C. Hydro's Integrated Electricity Planning process, the Crown utility estimated the cost of energy from Site C (if it were built by B.C. Hydro) could be as low as $42 per MWh. It could also provide almost as much power as called for in the 2006 tender. Alternatively, if B.C. Hydro were to build the same kind of small B.C. Hydro projects it is now purchasing much of its private energy from, it would benefit from lower borrowing costs and significant economies based on avoiding the expensive duplication inherent in projects built by numerous private developers. But such costing is precluded by the government's Energy Plan because B.C. Hydro is not permitted to build such projects at all.
To understand just how much B.C. Hydro is overpaying, it helps to examine some independent numbers. The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), part of the U.S. Department of Energy, predicts that energy prices will be about $50 per MWh at the B.C. border until 2018. Throughout this period, according to a table B.C. Hydro submitted to the BCUC on August 31, the indexed price to be paid under the B.C. Hydro contracts will average nearly $100 per MWh, or approximately double the predicted market price. Moreover, even if we go further into the future -- where predictions become more and more problematic -- the estimates show that B.C. Hydro will still be paying far more than the projected market price for at least another decade.
Confer Consulting, another well respected energy forecaster, provides estimates of future electricity prices that are even lower than the EIA estimates. If these forecasts prove accurate, it means that B.C. ratepayers will be paying more than double the market price for the next two decades.
Given this information, it is hard to understand how locking B.C. Hydro into long-term contracts at such high prices is justifiable public policy. The one thing it will do is make a lot of private energy developers rich.
Secret contracts
When B.C. Hydro built its own generation assets, British Columbians were ensured reasonable prices and a secure, self-sufficient supply of electricity. All that has been changed under the current Energy Plan. The contracts B.C. Hydro is signing give developers a guaranteed public revenue stream that they can use as collateral to finance their new power plants. That means B.C. ratepayers are effectively paying to finance them, like a tenant paying rent to cover the landlord's mortgage costs. Yet for all the money the public spends on these contracts, it gets no assets, no price protection once the contracts have expired and no guarantee that the energy they're paying for won't be exported in the future.
There is no "crisis" that would justify locking B.C. Hydro into such large future expenditures. Once the contracts have been signed, the public will be committed to buying the energy at the very high prices specified, regardless of whether changes in B.C.'s economic position, lower projected demand in the coming years, or energy prices in the Pacific Northwest energy market -- as predicted -- continue to remain far below the contracted prices.
In light of the huge amounts of public money involved, ratepayers might expect that the B.C. Utilities Commission -- the agency mandated to protect the public interest -- would be holding major public hearings to ensure that all other options are fully examined before allowing B.C. Hydro to proceed. But instead, it has chosen to give its approval to the contracts. And, it has also ruled that, for reasons of "commercial confidentiality," the actual terms of the contracts will not be open to public disclosure.
However you look at it, $15.6 billion in one tender call is a lot of money. And, at the very least, the huge sums now being committed should finally be generating a major public debate about the Government's energy policy. ![[Tyee]](http://thetyee.cachefly.net/ui/img/ico_fishie.png){kind=small}
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dunngy
5 years ago
Comments on "BC Hydro's Amazingly Bad Deal for Taxpayers&qu
This story is a prime example of what should be debated in the legislature.No wonder Gordo cancelled the fall sitting!The lack of public scrutiny that P3's demand for "COMPETITIVE" reasons should scare the hell out of British Columbians.This is what is called open and honest government?Typical underhanded devious behaviour from the convicted criminal.
Gary
5 years ago
And there are still some on this board who think that the Cambell government in B.C. is not lining the pockets of the already rich. My suggestion is that you e-mail all your friends to sent protest mail to your MLA, MP,The premier and The BC Utilities commission.
Then follow it up to the comission with a phone call to see if they got your e-mail. The government and their elected officials are required to answer. And if the premier sends you an answer that has nothing to do with your questions, send him anothe detailed message. Keep it up until he gives you a straight answer. It's time to stop this crap.
Does class action suit ring any bells.
Grumpy
5 years ago
Gordon Campbell is the greatest example that we do not live in a democracy, rather a dictatorship controlled by the elites, both left and right.
He has given away the province to his corporate friends, no debate, no honesty, just take it!
Quisling Campbell lied when he sold off BC Rail and he lies when he wnats his way.
This begs the question, "how bad will the next Premier be?"
Alcibiades
5 years ago
Parts of the enabling legislation for the travesty discussed above were included in Bill 30: The Miscellaneous Statutes Amendment Act in the Last sitting of the House.
However, as the article above notes the 'plan' has been in the minds of the current 'government' since they came to power.
Given the 'almost-ignored' fact that some former members of the BCLiberal team are going to be in court today - hopefully to begin the process of revealing how the back room deals in the BC Rail 'sale' went down - and to which insiders’ advantage; it's hard not to wonder what some real investigative journalism by the so-called main stream media could have done with that story and could still do with this one.
The people are not being well served by their government, the opposition or the PRESS.
It's time the PEOPLE woke up to what's going on behind closed doors in this province.
Instead of actually covering these stories, many of the so-called reporters who ought to be on top of this stuff have been sitting on their hands for the last five years or chuckling about what a ‘nothing’ story all of this is.
RickW
5 years ago
Once run-of-the-river projects are OK'ed, does this open the possibility that, once having acquired virtual "ownership" of the waterway, if the bottom line dictates that the better profit margin lies in water diversion, would private owners have licence to do that?
http://www.schillerinstitute.org/economy/phys_econ/phys_econ_nawapa_1983.html
Gary
5 years ago
Hey Grumpy, I think we should amend "dictatorship" to "corporate dictatorship", because we all know now for a fact that Gordon Campbell is a puppet to the corporations and the rich.
Cynic
5 years ago
Except to those of us who have stopped living our lives in denial and have taken a hard look at the reality of elite rule. This article is yet more proof that the elite are sequestering the wealth of our planet into private pockets and further consolidating their power over us.
Bailey
5 years ago
I would like to point out
I would like to point out once again that during the Enron fraud in the US, BC Hydro was accused of helping to bleed the public of California white.
When the scam was exposed, BC Hydro was sued by the state of California for price gouging for charging many times the actual market price for power during the brownout phase of the scam, when falsified shortages were being used to convince Californians they had to pay it.
There is no "crisis" that would justify locking B.C. Hydro into such large future expenditures.
It all sounds so familiar, doesn't it?
Only one man will be going to jail for the Enron scam, and him not even from Arthur Andersen Accounting, Enron's financial controllers, the ones who must have been central to the fraud by any reasonable extrapolation. At the very least complicit to permit it.
Then, according to a letter signed by him that came out on a labour website, Gordon Campbell personally flew to the states and hired Andersen Accounting, by then renamed Accenture, to come to BC and take over BC Hydro.
The rational for this change is hard to fathom. The old policy worked very well.
I submit that all BC Hydro's odd acquisition practices date from the moment Accenture took a hand. I further submit that once somebody has been involved in such a massive criminal conspiricy, they forfeit any right to privacy in their future business dealings. Whatever they rename themselves.
On the contrary, they really must be scrutinized in every single detail, publically, and audited six ways from Sunday to see what they're getting up to every day.
Anomolies like these simply cannot be passed over. We know who these guys are. They've shown their true colors in the past.
Alcibiades
5 years ago
Is Tyee having technical difficulties?
Several threads on the main site won't open. There were no BIG STORIES on the weekend. ALL THE COMMENTS on the Glavin thread have disappeared and several other threads which have moved off the main site are also dead.
I see no explanation anywhere on the website.
Would it be too much to ask for some kind of an explanatory note?
Or are the folks who generate the traffic to this site irrelevant?
alive
5 years ago
Reading the above, as well as in vive le canada, I have come to the conclusion that anyone who voted in this bunch of criminals ougth to go to confession, and clear their sins away!
We are all guilty of not screaming loud enough!
We should have huge demonstrations going regularly, as more and more is revealed about how we are getting plundered!
Man the barricades, or quit whining when we get declared a third world country!
alive
5 years ago
Reading this article, and a similar one in "vive le Canada", it seems that anyone how voted in these criminals, should go to confession to clear their souls for what they have caused.
Many posters here keep hassling about the NDP and its "poor' fiscal management; what do you call this!
We should see mass demonstration protesting that this is happening; we should demand the press begin to report on the way we are getting plundered!
It is time to man the barricades!
Either that or accept that we will end up as another "third world country"
Moosebeer
5 years ago
This is bull$$$$$. How can the Liberal government get away with this? If we let this continue we will be in the same situation as places like California paying through the nose for power and experiencing regular blackouts.
If people would turn off the television set and stop watching mindless dribble like "That 70's Show" and "America's Next Top Model" and pay attention to what really matters then maybe, just maybe, these criminals that we call politicians would go to jail for their crimes.
Kam Lee
5 years ago
"BC Premier Gordon Campbell has dropped a privatization bombshell - all provincial government projects over $20 million will be P3s - public-private partnerships - "unless there is a compelling reason to do otherwise."
He is a criminal, plain and simple. Unproven plans, huge cost over-runs, private companies failing, leaving the state to pick up the tab. Ahh, I can see it now... gorddo retired, new girlfriend & baby beside him, atlantic ratfish broiling on the bbq, his pockets full of payoffs, and a cold one beside him as he scrathes his ass & scratch n wins. Maybe he could reture over in Africa, there are many dictatorships over there, he would sorta fit in nicely.
wiley
5 years ago
Are we ready for 12 cents per kilowatt hour yet? Are we ready to pay twice as much as now, or use half as much? Your personal choice, fellow British Corruptionists, thanks to further Enclosure of the Commons. If this happened in a South American country right now, there WOULD be bloody revolution in the streets, but Joe Sixpack won't even know what hit him here. He just keeps hitting the snooze button.
gordon
5 years ago
Isn't there a law that allows citizens to sue a government/politician for selling us down the river?
Or do I have to wait for everyone in BC to lose everything and get thrown into the streets before people wake up?
Alcibiades
5 years ago
I see things are slowly returning to normal on the site this morning. Once again, a simple notice would be nice. With some of the decisions that have been made by editors around here lately, one can hardly blame readers for being a bit suspicious that someone might have been trying to bury their mistakes.
maestro
5 years ago
Alci:
and other Comrade bloggers:
Check the TOP RIGHT (not "Left") HAND CORNER OF the TYEE home page, ie "TYEE NEWS " it acknowledges there were technical problems which they have looked into and hopefully addressed.
(I find if one re-tries one's attempts at access they often succeed). No perceived conspiracy other then an imperfect world( though G West will most likely comment and hopefully provide Utopian links )
jwstewart
5 years ago
I'm curious, if consumption of electricity stays constant, or only grows very slowly, will BC still be require to by all that power ?
Alcibiades
5 years ago
maestro
Wasn't there when I get up dude, which is a lot earlier than you do apparently.
The problems actually started last night - which you can confirm by looking at Truman's posts on the movie thread.
Notices after the fact are lame.
jimmy_laroux
5 years ago
Excellent article. Keep more like this one coming!
haraldkann
5 years ago
Doesn't this just make you want to PUKE!
The brain
5 years ago
Is old snot nose giving you trouble again, G? He's got some running kicks in his gonads coming within and outside of this site, I can assure you.
They say there are two kinds of americans... americans, and Republican americans. You know, G, the "puritan" kind. Enter Maestro, your typical pollutin', war mongerin' war profiteerin', racist Republican who thinks his shit stains makes his shorts "cleaner".
In Maestro's world, arrogance and stupidity reign's the day. In my world, he'd just get shit kicked.
As for this article, DIDN'T BRITISH COLUMBIANS SEE IT COMING? Its an egg in the face of anyone who would support such a crooked criminal as Campbell and shameful to those who didn't try hard enough to stop him. Every post here besides Maestro's is only to true. If it was any where else, say Mexico?, there'd be chaos in the streets. Campbell's got to go.
It amazes me that Campbell can still walk around without security.
The brain
5 years ago
You already know the answer to that one, JW. These are binding contracts.
Buy for more, sell for less is the way to lose money and to who? The U.S., of course. The same players who bought Teresen turned Morgan Kindle (ie Goldman Sachs and Carlyle) are involved with this one. Not only do they own our arteries and capillaries of gas services, they'll own our electricity too. Who do you think is behind the next generation of dam proposals in BC? But then, you're probably not from this province, more like south of us so this is good for you, right?
Alcibiades
5 years ago
And wonder who's getting the payoffs on the side --- nudge, nudge, wink wink....say no more.
20MileRanch
5 years ago
A crime of unusual dimension. The rule of law is threatened in BC. The public has said clearly it wants water energy resources kept under public control. Many of us know these trnsactions to be lawless. The public will respond has to respond with intervention. Dr. Calvert's details the bad business case. The impact on our society is far more expensive than 20 billion dollars. All of the income from our water powered energy systems are being diverted to a few private hands. It has to stop. The actual dollar loss to the public is incalcuable.
How does society arrest its lawmaker and stop the loss of its most prized public possession?
jimmy_laroux
5 years ago
A few relevant links ...
http://www.hydrofactsbc.ca
http://www.citizensforpublicpower.ca/
If only we had a political system that allowed us, the citizens, to decide the future of the provinces resources. We could call this system ... hmmm ...
G West
5 years ago
This is not a crime of or by by BCHydro.
This is the effect of having a government that cares more about its friends than it does about the people who it is meant to serve.
The people of BC are in the process of having the natural resources of this province stolen from them and there is no other way to put it.
If the opposition in Victoria doesn't wake up and start to rattle that cage on Government Street in VIctoria then it's time the rest of us started to.
Call, write or email Carole James. And if that doesn't work the people will have to find another way.
It's taken years for the last example of insider trading to get to the courts - clearly some other way must be found to address this theft.
My view
20MileRanch
5 years ago
The recent 15 billion dollar award from BC Hydro (BC taxpayers) to a few companies is not cast in stone. It takes time to build facilitites. There is time to stop this carnage of public wealth. Victoria is turning itself into a colonial power as regions are forced to surrender. BC Hydro ads, Alcan ads, Terasen ads, coal ads are designed to assist the colonial suppression of the regions where the "public assets" are located. 170 local governments from across BC (99%)voted lastweek for the people and against the lawlessness. Only the public, the suplicants, can rise against tryranny as the local governments have taken their best shot at answering the attack on our democracy. The Province is exercising its colonial power right now attempting to keep our local leaders at bay. The public can stand with local government. We have little time and local government is our best chance. Please see hydrofactsbc.ca for more info.
Elliot
5 years ago
corporation bashing. yawn.
maestro
5 years ago
Alci:
Serenity now ......Serenity now.
Just letting ya know in the spirit of TYEE Blogger comraderie...the TYEE has spot- blogged before about admitting cyber problems.
I also saw the other TYEE posters as well( like TG as you mentioned ) commenting on the same problem many of us had.
( Your previous comments seemed a wee- bit conspiratorial / accusatory ). TYEE is "free" so far and free-speech based.
Again ....Serenity now -Serenity now
20MileRanch
5 years ago
May I suggest a video?
See workingtv.com/downtheriver.html
The brain
5 years ago
The impacts, as 200 mileranch has noted reach far beyond 20 billion dollars.
This deal for BC Hydro to buy power from private interests for large money completely thwarts any ability for the crown corporation WE OWN to invest in the next generation of electrical production... geothermal power.
In the coming years, the pac rim will become the most noted area world wide to develope big power through geo thermal projects that at this time, private interests will not touch. The reasoning is that for as much as it's potential has been proved in California, only the government is able at this time to put out the capital it takes and take the risks involved, to invest.
Campbell's idiotic agenda to buy power under such contracts defeats any possibility of BC to look at the next generation of big power generation... geo thermal power.
Just as hydro dams were a risk to develope for the private sector, so too, is large scale thermal power development. Campbell has destroyed any hope of BC becoming a world leader in this area, once again, for greed. First BC rail, second BC gas and now this? Only the ideologically corrupt, proud and ignorant would dare support such a lame excuse for government.
There was no sitting of the house of legislation, no transparency for something this big and bad for BC?
We have a corrupt media to not address it, a corrupt government to even consider it, never mind go about it the way they have, and quite possibly a corrupt electorate to have had the apathy and audacity to vote these crooks in twice, or not vote at all. It smells wherever one stands.
The brain
5 years ago
Sorry about that, 20 mile. Should have dropped a zero. :-)
Nana
5 years ago
I checked out net metering on the BC Hydro site, thinking that one of the outcomes of the inevitable price raise might be encouraging homeowners to install solar and/or wind power. It doesn't look like much of an incentive because Hydro will only be paying 5.4 cents per kwt hr. for electricity surplus to the customer's needs over the year.
http://www.bchydro.com/rx_files/info/info11776.pdf
20MileRanch
5 years ago
WATER LICENSES A water licence for the perpetual power from a BC river cost from zero to 10K. There aren't any left and the 400 good ones are moving forward. They went to friends of the governing party in BC on a first come basis. We should pay them their money back (0-10K) and protect them for their owners the future generations of the public. The 12 that have been built into private power facilties have been flipped to larger and larger remote owners at least twice and sometimes three times in the last three years. The net present value of one of these licenses can be close to a billion dollars. Most are worth many tens of millions of dollars. There is no income to speak of to the public from a private power producer. Our rivers and our water powered energy systems are ours and we need them to maintain our safety and security in the future. The public has spoken and the theft has to stop.
It is interesting to learn how Alcan fits in and how we are being deceived. Think of BC Hydro spending 15 million dollars in October to tell everyone the governemnt is looking after our power needs. Using public institutions against its owners, the public, is a very un-Canadian approach to governance. Everyone should pay special attention to the BC Hydro ads after reading this article knowing the system is being staged to fall from our control.
Black
5 years ago
Where are all the neo-cons on this thread? I am curious to see what contorted logic they apply to make this colossal rip-off a good deal for the "taxpayers of BC."
Personally, I've always thought of myself as a citizen.
Elliott - is that the best you can do? How disappointing.
snert
5 years ago
Black
You mean Liberals, don't you. All one in the same.
trulib
5 years ago
If this is all true, why isn't it in the mainstream media? What is the NDP(an 'opposition party godsend' everywhere for Neo-conservative political parties) doing to bring this to the public's attention. As per usual, not having the wherewithal or interest in doing anything. You can bet things would be different if the shoe was on the other foot.
Lefty
5 years ago
They sound more and more like a gang of criminals, Is there a political party which is promising investigations and criminal prosecutions, and jail terms for convictions? This certainly sounds like major violations of public trust. shame
Stephen Fisher-...
5 years ago
What can you call the actions of the BC government on BC Hydro, and every other file, except what it is? The BC Liberal government has betrayed its trust to serve the people of BC. It is in fact at war with the people of BC, conniving to sell us out for their own personal benefit. No one of any political stripe can pretend that what the BC government is doing is anything but disasterous for BC, and absolutely anyone competent to manage their own affairs can see that readily, if they have the facts. They are just hoping we are so cowed and bowed down by debt and overwork/underwork that we will just watch helplessly while it happens. We don't have a gun to our heads yet, but we are acting as helpless as if we did.
What makes it even more frightening and traumatic to be so betrayed by those in positions of trust, is that the obvious alternative government does not inspire any confidence of being able to resist the pressure of international corporations wishing to rob and despoil. In fact, the 9 years of NDP rule were the greatest binge of privatisation in BC history, post-Dunsmuir and pre-Campbell. In those years, the idea of privatising BC Hydro piecemeal began. As did the idea of privatising our public forests, the trend of increasing log exports, unlivable cuts to welfare, efforts to lift the moratorium on offshore oil and gas, mass trials of peaceful protestors (unconstitutional!), privatising photo radar to a US firm, privatising home care from local NGOs to US for-profit firms, refusing to recognise aboriginal title and negotiate in good faith, race-baiting terrorisation of protesters at Gustaffson Lake, identifying environmentalists as enemies of BC, etc., etc., etc! And all this from a party that is so devout on party discipline, that none of these wrongful acts were protested, so far as I know, by even one member of the NDP caucus.
One can see a trend of increasing betrayal from Van der Zalm, to Harcourt, to Clark/Miller/Dossanjh, to Campbell. None of the changes of leader or party had much effect on the general trend. We have to face it that under the present electoral system, leaders do not feel sufficient pressure from the people to make them be accountable to the will of the people. I am spending lots of effort to promote electoral reform, but this will not solve anything in the time frame that is necessary to prevent a complete sell out and despoiling of our homelands. We have to somehow get around a media that is bought and sold by our oppressors, to get the message to the people of what is really happening to their lands, their freedom, and their children's future. At the same time people need to be given hope, to realise that we don't have to wait for our political system to mend itself, that we have the power as citizens to say NO. With the run up to the Olympics, this power is actually greatly intensified. We have to act together to protect our lives, in the same way that people have everywhere else where they have succeeded: get out in the streets and bang on pots, general strike, mass non-repayment of loans.
G West
5 years ago
This isn't just a bad deal for ratepayers. It's a bad deal for the citizens of BC and Canada too. Why would anyone purposely sell out British Columbia's potential to meet its own energy needs to commercial interests?
And why would the apparent successors to the party which created BC Hydro in the first place surrender the future potential of W.A.C.Bennett's vision of cheap, abundant and readily available power for all British Columbians now and in the future?
There must be something highly personal about this, don't you think? There is no way it can be sold as being in the public interest when unconscionable profits stolen from the natural heritage of this country is being given away for nothing. There are no risks to this deal – it’s a straight give away with a guaranteed return – money for nothing.
So, who benefits? You have to follow the money. Whose hands are in your pockets?
Who is shouldering the tax burdens in this province right now? Not the people who Gordon Campbell rewarded with corporate tax cuts the moment he became premier. The load on them is lighter than ever.
Follow the money. These people believe in wealth without work. It is the kind of entitlement they thrive on. Follow the money. Whenever someone finds a way to get money for nothing – and that’s what this is – you know who you’ll find lining up at the door. The real welfare cases in this province. They don’t have to put out their hands and caps on the street corner – their hands are already deep in your pockets.
The brain
5 years ago
trulib:
You don't know that Canwest, BC's largest media outlet in terms of market share with 27% of Vancouvers media alone, is controlled by the Asper family, an Israeli run pro U.S. media conglomerate heavily biased to increase the U.S.'s market share in every single Canadian market including medicare, insurance, banks, media, crown corporation and board Canada has, through "privatization"?
Where have you been, Trulib? Perhaps you haven't heard of the National Citizens Coalition and their own likeminded agenda with Republican Harper as president of this organization for five years before stealing the leadership of the Conservative party.
Where have you been? Its all about ownership. Its the very reasons why the U.S. has lied to their own people from Vietnams Norwood to today's Iraq... to own the world. Its pinky and the brain all over again.
They already own 80% of our resources. You don't think the U.S. doesn't want total market share in our insurance, banks, healthcare, grain handling, media, i.e. whats left that they don't own including our own sovereignty? A coup is happening right before our eyes with Harper. They need crooked politicians like Harper, Emerson, Fortier and Campbell to sell us out but once its done, its irreversable... except for little things like REVOLT's.
Ah... I can't be to hard on you. Our own media has let us down. It would do you good to look at the reasons why. The NCC has cost our government billions in legal challenges since '68, and is responsible for a host of legislation the federal Libs introduced such as gag laws that were created specifically because of them and it doesn't stop there.
In 2002, it was Harper vs Canada in the Courts to keep political party contributions a secret. Harper couldn't be a bigger hypocrite in terms of transparency. With transparency removed, the Cons were able to load up their war chest with monies from U.S. oil and insurance companies, church groups and organizations like the NCC, perhaps even the Republican party itself.
It would do you well to take a look at the NCC's past Canadian "friends". Ralph Klein and the "shrub" are their favorites. Just check out their site. They've toned down the racism, but their old sites back in the day might as well have been written by the KKK.
morefreedom.org
20MileRanch, Bailey, Nana, excellent points.
greengreen
5 years ago
Would there be a list of contracts somewhere....who got these contracts?
Is there anything positive for the province in this?
What has happened to the group(s) that spoke out against privitisation of power not that long ago? I believe BC. Hydro workers had a very active campaign ( those damn special-interest union type guys).
Come buildilng time, could these sites be sabatoged, much like logging sites ove the years?
jimmy_laroux
5 years ago
trulib,
Do you have information that contradicts any of what Mr. Calvert has written? If so, please share it.
Why indeed...
At least it shows just what CanWest Global is worth. I guess you have to read the Tyee to find out what's really going on in BC.
I'm sure the NDP are trying to bring this to the public's attention. But if you haven't read anything about this topic in the "mainstream media", would you expect to read an NDP reaction to it in the same media?
I love how you bring up the NDP in your post, though. Hilarious.
The brain
5 years ago
We are currently under a MAJORITY Campbell government. They no longer even open parliment for discussions anymore. And the points about our NDP party doing nothing is just as true.
And where are the greens? You'd think they'd want to get a few members elected as MLA's. Not a peep. The only thing that will stop Campbell from selling out this province entirely before he's done is a bullet at this point. Not like I'm suggesting anything, if anyones going around shooting people, these guys are the ones to do that sort of thing, they've done everything else, but thats just how it is. About the only thing that will stop them now is a bullet or a revolt.
G West
5 years ago
I think there may be one other thing The brain. What if some of these characters turned out to have peddled influence like a certain former minister of forests?
Like other energy companies and the folks who dealt with them in government.
What if they were caught in something as simple as the little nudge, nudge thing that brought down Devine? Devine had a majority government, remember?
What if it could be shown that some people in government had manipulated things to their own advantage?
Don't forget about the example of Robert Summers. People on the inside know more than they are saying. I think some of them may have a conscience too.
Just an idle thought. I don't think the BC Liberals like having anyone looking over their shoulder.
pure
5 years ago
Why is everyone so negative about the contracts? After all it may be a very positive move. If the public could view the contracts they would not understand them anyway. The Lawyers, Engineers and related specialists are the workers that understand the commercial and technical aspects of this paticular project. The tax payers are never in favour of changes. Some IPP's may get rich and rightly so. The public should be more concerned about a used car salesman as anything related to a car is very costly but we as consumers bite the bullit for our favorite car!!
Try and think like Steve McQeen and Ali MacGraw and you may feel much better!!
It's good to be rich not other than then rich.
pure
5 years ago
That is Steve McQueen and Ali MacGraw.
Just a typo in the above blog.
Elliot
5 years ago
'I'm sure the NDP are trying to bring this to the public's attention.' now there's a good little morning chuckle. nobody's listening to anything these clowns are saying anyway. in fact they'll be reduced to less than 20 seats in the next election b/c they're practically irrelevant. why? no constructive policies. just lots of blather.
20MileRanch
5 years ago
CONTRACTS
Canadians are fair not stupid. There should never be a private contract on a public river whether you can read or not. Those who have read the contracts know they yeild nothing for the public. That is why Bill 30 was passed. Someone noticed the details in a water power contract.
A Canadian is fair, to a fault. The fault will be ours if we don't take action to save our water power assets.
Companies who have water licenses will each be a public utility according to Dick, the Energy Minister, and will have powers of expropriation as agents of government.
rkewen
5 years ago
This is irrelevant as my own traffic is diminishing thanks to the irrelevance of Tyee's own choice of articles etc. If I want to read about fashion, music or infotainment there are better sources. I won't even miss the local idiots who clutter the discussion boards as idiots are in good supply pretty much everywhere.
Really?
loriw
5 years ago
Take Back the Power 3
The union that brought you Hands off Hydro and helped spawn Citizens for Public Power, has come out of the gate swinging again! Check out their campaign at publicpowerbc.ca
I tried posting earlier so apologies if this is a duplciate
pure
5 years ago
Campbell promised he would not privatize BC HYDRO AND POWER AUTHORITY. I can't understand campbell as a leader in anything. He does not practice what he preaches. The IPP's (independent Power Producers) and BC Hydro will be duplicating so much it is bad news for the tax and rate payers. On the next election we should try and turf this guy out. But the question is? who do we vote for??
a) BC RAIL
B) BC HYDRO
C) BC FERRIES
D) Does anything make any sense with campbell???
rkewen
5 years ago
Two obvious result of Campbell's plan for what used to be public companies/services are Ferries that can't stay on top of the water and trains that can't stay on the track. If this is the rewards of privatization, don't stop now!
We could have ambulances that avoid accidents, hospitals that avoid sick people (ooops, I guess we already have that one), police that avoid real criminals (ooops, my bad again) and highways maintenance that avoids snow unless it falls at the right time (not during overtime) (my ooops) and an education system that prepares students for a test instead of life (ooops again). I guess there's not much left to say after all when you think about it.
Maybe the Tyee would be irrelevant even if it wasn't trying to be so.
maestro
5 years ago
Re this issue;
..and again trying to bring some devil's advocate approach/objectivity, and also without saying or claiming the current dealings are either right or wrong.
The basic question is why are we here,.... and how did we get here in the first place?
BC, for the most part , has its electrical power needs derived from hydro-electric generation(DAMS) , do we not?
As growth in BC continues, have we provided for any future supplies of power? I recall the B.C. Hydro POWER SMART conservation program , which seemed counter to the general corporate philosophy of create MORE supply to meet GREATER demand.
Maybe this POWER SMART program was more a "canary in the mine" foreshadowing to delay the inevitable . BC HYDRO has also been on record as into energy trading, actually buying and selling power, but apparently, currently, at a net fiscal benefit to BC. Perhaps there is a major shift occurring here.
If not mistaken, the last major Hydro-electric project was the Revelstoke Dam , built over 20 years ago. That was probably decades in the making/planning prior to the first shovel of dirt moved in its construction.
Now that the supply shite is apparently hitting the demand fan, why all this controversy ? If we don't create additional domestic supply, we will likely have to import it, correct? ...and be subject to the NON- domestic free -market price uncertainty.
So why didn't we keep up with demand ?
Why wasn't more power supply generated ?
Wasn't this all predictable ?
Think about those questions...and perhaps in the context that seeds of the past MAY , I repeat "MAY" , result in a contextual argument that desperate times MAY, I repeat "MAY",..call for desperate measures in the Big Picture, and that NOT everyone's hands are clean in this mess.
More later.
rkewen
5 years ago
maestro sez:
More later.
I'm so relieved, cuz I know by reading your words of wisdom, I too will come to know the way! Once they start actually making sense, of course!
BC Dude
5 years ago
As Far As I'm Concerned Gordon Campbell should be put on trial for treason against the PEOPLE OF BRITISH COLUMBIA! I'm sure that he does not Legally have the Right to do this treasonous act as he was elected "For the People By the People"!
3,000,000 of US BCers could say file a Class Action Suite against him at $40. a head 3,000,000x40=$120,000,000. a great start and much cheaper than eons of high bills and our kids future bills
jimmy_laroux
5 years ago
pure,
Like the BC Liberals, you show considerable contempt for democracy. These contracts aren't rocket science (unless deliberately made nebulous and obscure). And many of us in the public are "...Lawyers, Engineers and related specialists" who regularly deal with such contracts.
Nana
5 years ago
Maestro
You could try going back to the first two weeks the Liberals were in power when they removed part of the Hydo and Power Authority Act which dealt with conflict of interest on the part of the directors.
That might have given you the clue that all would not be well in Hydroland.
haraldkann
5 years ago
Now that the supply shite is apparently hitting the demand fan, why all this controversy ? If we don't create additional domestic supply, we will likely have to import it, correct? ...and be subject to the NON- domestic free -market price uncertainty.
So why didn't we keep up with demand ?
Why wasn't more power supply generated ?
Wasn't this all predictable ?
Think about those questions...and perhaps in the context that seeds of the past MAY , I repeat "MAY" , result in a contextual argument that desperate times MAY, I repeat "MAY",..call for desperate measures in the Big Picture, and that NOT everyone's hands are clean in this mess.
More later.
Geez Maestro,looking at your post,we can see you aint up to speed on the amount of power we can really generate up here in BEAUTIFUL BC.
The Columbia River for EXAMPLE is one of the most heavily damned rivers in the world and with the new BRILLIANT expansion near Castlegar...WE GOT POWER UP THE YING YANG.
OH ! Wait a minute Gordon Kampbell and Kompany is/has sold it for PEANUTS.
To .................HIS BUDDIES
Don't know what yer smokin man,but get with the program.
We are getting HOSED BIGTIME,you want California Power Costs,go live there.Remember the MONIES they owed us only a few short years ago.
Thanks to the KKKAMPBEL KKKlan,we are looking at paying EXORBITANT COSTS like those paid by Americans.
Since this is HALLOWEEN. think of el gordo dressed as a HUMONGOUS BLOOD SUCKING LEECH,it's so apropo .
The brain
5 years ago
rkewen:
If all you can do is belittle this site and its participants, perhaps you and your arrogance should move on.
You are being seen as nothing more than simply belittling others to build yourself up. Again. (yawn... it takes all kinds)
rkewen
5 years ago
Hey Mr. Brain(less) who isn't arrogant from your all-seeing perspective. to wit:
When the Tyee starts promoting Climate Change deniers and too many of the commenters spend all their time repeating Karl Rove inspired drivel, I may indeed move on.
Maestro for what ever reason saw fit to tell us more of his wisdom would follow his recent post. It is my choice to regard that as a warning rather than something to look forward to.
Now that the former CEO of the World Bank has pointed out the cost of global warming in TRILLIONS of dollars, maybe even the fat cats are starting to realize they can't eat money (or drink it, or breathe it).
BC Dude
5 years ago
So my idea of a class-action suit against Gordon Campbell for selling out British Columbians who bought and paid for these Public Utilities in the first place is not worth a reply?
It's never been done before that I know of and I think this is the right time to bring in this/these perpetrators before the courts and the people!
Then we deserve to have our Hydro taken over by Kinder Morgan in Texas.
The Vancouver Sun (CanWest) FrontPage blaming the RCMP very little about the Legislature Raids of 2003?
BC Dude
5 years ago
I don't buy the CanWest rags, I just read the front pages (for chuckle) as I walk past their boxes.
But I am boycotting Future Shops because of their full-page ads in these rags. I'm only one person but talking to my friends they also will not be going into Future Shops until CanWest becomes the paper for the people!
rkewen
5 years ago
BC Dude, your class action suit is a great notion. However, class action suits are very difficult to pursue in Canada and judging from the legal activity stemming from the Raid on the Legislature, would Campbell still be alive by the time it even got to court. Also, would the public even know about it when and if it did?
BC Dude
5 years ago
rkewen Yes as long as I'm alive I will never give up on fighting for my & my childrens DEMOCRATIC RIGHTS
But WE as a People of this Great Province can't let this go on any farther, 3yrs this lil man, gordon campbell has gotten away with delaying the Justice of this mockery of Democracy!
How could I look at my kids faces if I did not try?
netscaper2
5 years ago
BC Dude...the tears I shed while reading your
crap nearly ruined my keyboard.
What the hell does Future Shop have to do with
BC Hydro ?
It seems not to many realise that Hydro purchases mega power from the easterners as they can't shut down nuclear plants when the demand is low. BC purchases that power in the evenings as it can be bought cheaper than it can be produced in BC.
Thus, Hydro says we are using more power than we produce.
VancouverPointGreen
5 years ago
I am an MBA student who has done work for BC Hydro and was most discouraged by the management of the crown corporation.
First of all, my team of students warned them of the alarming increase in demand for energy without enough energy on the grid. They know this and are importing coal-burning energy from Nevada (highly subsidised state for cheap energy--ever been to Vegas?) and Alberta. Richard Neufield is a strong advocate for cheap coal producing energy which is why we have 2 coal plants under the new tender. We produce and subsidize coal and they don't want to increase the rates too high for fear of losing votes.
Secondly, we rely on big dams and have about 10% micro or small hydro (which increases slightly with this new tender (which includes our first wind projects--yes, that is correct we have 0 currently). The problem is that we cannot rely on our glacier-fed rivers any more, especially with the lack of rainfall. So our supply is dwindling and Site C is less of an option as global warming becomes more of a reality.
The solution is a strong commitment to wind, thermal, tidal and wave. We could be global leaders with the proper infrastructure. But, the Liberals are politically bound to burning and subsidizing fossil fuels. ever been to the Peace River? It is Alberta if not for the line deviding the provinces and that is where the most revenues.
Furthermore, the passing of the renewable energy proposal in California for this upcoming election will have dire consequences for the power we sell unless we have a greater emphasis on renwables. BC has fallen behind while the consumption levels have soared. A greater emphasis should be to lower consumption, do as Ontario and Quebec have done (in very different ways--one private and one public) and put more renwable sources on the grid (not just small private projects).
In my view, the IPP/P3 solution is not working and the mega dam projects (as seen under the NDP) aren't either.
Why not offshore wind instead of offshore oil?
Why not tidal, wave and geothermal (of which we have tremendous opportunities in BC)?
peefer
5 years ago
Welcome to the new Dark Ages (apropo given the subject is electricity). All good serfs will now kow-tow to the figureheads in Victoria, Ottawa and Washington - if you know what's good for you.
And Canadians, BCers in particular, are such good serfs, too. Witness how quiet and well mannered we all are even as they abrogate all our rights to even know what is going on, never mind have any say in such matters.
What rights have menial drones such as us to a legislative session to question the selling of our birthright? Not that it was much of a democracy as it was, but it was something at least.
pure
5 years ago
I hope the IPP's work out fine. The day that an outage takes place I hope the Lineman are there for us. The other point of interest is QUALITY CONTROL for all of this work that the IPP's are prepared to do. Another concern is Safety with electricity.
Any comments?
Curtis Scoville
5 years ago
Here is the letter I sent to my MLA today in response to reading this article. I urge everyone to do the same.
Dear Mr. Hagen,
Reading the article I've attached below is extremely upsetting, and it leaves me asking "what the hell the government of BC is up to?"
This appears be the kind of move that I would expect of the Alberta or federal Conservatives. It appears that BC Liberals are also enemies of public institutions. Public assets that have proven track records of acting in the best interests of the public.
I say this is a tragic sellout to private interests with no track record of concern for the public, in fact quite the opposite, take from the public to give to the shareholders.
I've laid my cards on the table now I request that you speak to this issue and spare me the PR campaign, I want facts to back up this decision that I'm going to be paying for.
I look forward to your response.
BC Dude
5 years ago
netscaper2, if you read my post properly you'd have seen why I'm boycotting Future Shop!
It's because of CanWest's total monopoly on all types of media including Global TV the only thing they put out is non news garbage and until they start to print real news! I and my friends will boycott their advertisers.
There's no news about Hydro?
There's been in three years no news only lately very little news about the Legislature Raids of 2003?
There's no news about how much the Corporation's are paying the RAV Guest Workers as little as four bucks an hour?
There's no news about the fish farm scandal?
There's no news about the huge over costs for the 2010 Winter Olympics more than 2billion+ and that's not including security?
They're so many more headlines that aren't covered by CanWest this is just to start!
jimmy_laroux
5 years ago
VancouverPointGreen,
There is no doubt about it.
This is false in two respects. First of all, the vast majority of the dam projects were built under the Social Credit, not the NDP. Second, the mega dam projects are the reason we enjoy the some of the lowest hydro rates on the continent.
pure
5 years ago
The rates we pay mow are very low compared to what we can expect a few years from now. So get ready folks to cut back on your electrical usage or pay the piper. This project is a real shame to British Columbians.
maestro
5 years ago
Now now Leftie Ltd.
When ya'll drink your own bath water,FIRST make sure the communal shower filters out all the soapy lather,especially around your mouths....
Ya mighta got bit in the ass by another rabid Leftie, and we may have to put ya to sleep by again having ya digesting your own "low nutrition -anal value" words.
At least attach a device that will harness / co -generate all the power from all the same -old same -old key board rebarfed rhetoric. ( But then again that will probably result in a " Save the Dust Mites" enviro lobby ....)
maestro
5 years ago
BC Dude;
If ya file a class action lawsuit....WHO, I repeat W-H-O is going to U-L-T-I-M-A-T-E-L-Y pay ?
yeesshhhh !!!!!!!
If ya are successful, LOL , let's keep it going...I got a few on my own list.
maestro
5 years ago
VancouverPointGreen:
Thanks for the comments and insight...
It adds constructively and objectively to the discussion.
My compliments.
maestro
5 years ago
Hey Rkewen et al:
(i) Why are (Natural) GAS fired electrical power generation plants not being used, (didn't the NDP try ???)
(ii) Also WHY aren't they built up north, close to the Natural Gas supply source ???
shabbaranks
5 years ago
The Greens are silent on this issue because many of the new power projects are environmnentally sensitive. There were wind projects awarded contracts, biomass and run of river.
Part of the need for this call came out of the rejection several times over of the Duke Point gas power project proposed at Nanaimo by BC Hydro. The only other project BCHydro can develop is a huge dam in the Paece River Region. Nobody in the region wants this as it is unnecessary and destructive. BC Hdyro is really big into legacy projects that are capital intensive and huge. The independent power projects are small and cheaper with a much smaller power output.
Environmentalists are quiet on this issue because ironically, it is the private power producers and corporations who will build good, "green" projects. There isn't a single wind turbine turning in BC. This is BC Hydro's fault. BC Hydro has shown NO interest in developing or even testing or itnegrating these types of renewables.
Calvert's article paints Hydro as a chaste virgin being stripped by money hungry corporatists, but in relaity Hydro is a dirty bird. They are rooted in their dinosaur logic and many of their people tow the "no scientific evidence that fossil fuels are that damaging" line.
I am as against corporate ownership of public interests as much as the next poster on here, but the one good thing that will come out of these contracts is clean energy production from renewables.
Is this a lesser evil question?
SharingIsGood
5 years ago
(ii) Also WHY aren't they built up north, close to the Natural Gas supply source ???
i and ii) It makes more sense for the gas to be converted to heat for warming houses because it retains it's energy when being shipped. Relative to the small amount of energy being consumed for pumping gas, gas's BTUs stay with the product. With electricity, much of the energy gets lost over long distances. When BC sells electricity to California, it is actually making a bunch of trades for power in the grid. Therefore, BC's power actually gets used in Washington and Washington's gets bumped down to Oregon or to Idaho...etc. etc. until the trades are effected in such a way that California gets more power off the grid.
maestro
5 years ago
To: Shabbaranks and SharingIsGood
Good comments and thanks for more constructive debate.
As I blogged before, the PowerSmart program was probably a foreshadowing of the future energy needs and bought us a bit of extra time.
ALSO: Its ALWAYS about the lesser of two (or more) evils.
Different jurisdiction have different methods of power generation. BC 's historical choice was to make use of hydroelectric power, given the geography etc of our province(rivers and valleys = dams.) Other jurisdictions use coal, or nuclear energy or gas turbines or....
If our potential hydroelectric capacity, which is our main source, is getting tapped out, then we have to logically look at more options and sources.
SharingIsGood is bang on re the Natural gas option re electrical generation...The plants will be built nearest the main energy market, due to the energy loss over long distances aka resistance. However, the SUMAS project has created the NIMBY-ism that will likley make that impossible for air quality reasons...unless they decide to build it in remote areas and accept the power loss, which we now have via hydroelectric dams in remote areas, thus a bit of a Catch 22.
Wind power sounds great... but where...??? The problem with BC is that here in Lotusland someone's Ox will be gored when their OWN piece of heaven and the view etc. gets compromised with wind farms...One person I know mentioned they had invested in an Alberta wind farm, but they had NO winds for a month.
Tidal power inherently implies the BC coast, again same potential NIMBY-ism problem, plus overlapping jurisdictions like fisheries etc.
Solar power??? I have seen these installed, not much demand, not very practical nor aesthetically pleasing on roofs, not to mention rainy climate aka clouds and shorter daylight hours.
All in all, I think the problem has reached a crescendo that desperate times call for desperate measures, and that with no mega projects on the horizon, the solution is simply for the Gov't not to invest using billions of the public's money, but put this out to private venture proposals.
My loaded comment at while back was to encourage discussion, but I think BC has been involved in too much navel-gazing and fear of the environmental movement to ACTUALLY deal with this problem until recently, given much of the new power generation will either be built in remoter less dense " environmentally sensitive" areas, or like SUMAS, close enough to populated areas to create major protests.
Thus smaller deals with many private groups willing to take the risk with some guarantee of return was apparently the only logical solution...and TIME , as always, will TELL .
Alcibiades
5 years ago
Maestro, you haven't looked at the data. BC currently has enough excess generation capacity, with the hydro we're entitled to under the Columbia Treaty, to meet its current needs and sufficient for a decade or more of controlled growth.
What is needed now is a publicly-financed program to harness the additional hydro resources necessary to meet our power needs in the future; in other words a 21st century iteration of W.A.C.Bennett's program from the 50s, 60s, and 70s.
This is not rocket science. What the Campbell government is doing shackles the province's capacity to meet its own needs and puts our future requirements in the pockets of private buccaneers. Why would any sane government with a vision for the independent future ot this province even consider such a sell out of public assets?
If Wacky Bennett could float the bonds to build the dams that made this place, surely Gordon Campbell has the balls to do the same.
The fact he hasn't is an indictment of him, and us, if he is permitted to get away with it.
That's what highest and best use, and the utilitarian concept of greatest good for the greatest number is all about.
Nothing, as Cappy puts it, COMMNIE about that!
willy
5 years ago
The three areas of lowest cost power in North America are Quebec, Manatoba and BC. These are all publicly owned and mainly hydro powered. Now that is all going to change shortly as the cost for electrciy in BC is going to take off.
Those fancy commercials that Hydro is putting out is setting us up for that. Another reason for the cost of electricty rising is how Hydro has been split up. Hydro at on time was one enity covering generation, transmission, distribution, construction and administration. Now the main administration has been taken over by Accenture with its own HR and administration. Also Generation is now called Power Generation. Distribution, construction are basicaly their own enities.
Because of this break up of Hydro there is a vast duplication on jobs. Then there is transmission which is now called British Columbia Transmission Corporation which is its own crown corporation, with its own duplication of jobs, HR administration. The pay and welfare depts. of BCTC are contracted out to an Alberta firm. Alberta sure needs the jobs. This break up of Hydro will make it easy to privatize. I am sure all this duplication of jobs and departments has to have had a significant increase to costs.
Another thing is there has been a vast increase of administration in all areas but a cutback of workers who put leather to the road.
maestro
5 years ago
Alci:
My view re: this topic was to let the dialogue happen and read the commentary. I put forward some loaded hints hoping some other would take the ball and run with it.
I have a lot of respect for Rafe, but do you remember his clause celebre' re: the Kemano completion project? His public efforts effectively contributed to its cancellation. The likely collateral consequences were that expanded hydroelectric power generation, BC's electrical "bread and butter" was too politically volatile anyhwere in BC. These types of cause celebre' wet blankets simply delay the inevitable.
VancouverPointGreen commented above, and by being involved via working at BC Hydro. Their contention was that we have limited capacity to tap any more hydroelectric power. Of course we do....there is and has to be a limit .
If climate change
is affecting water supply for dams...BC Hydro has to plan accordingly, and perhaps ratchet down what their potential power predictions would be, correct?
Columbia treaty? yes,possibly but not many have mentioned it...perhaps someone could dig up the info.
Again, my other loaded comments were that BC has many other potential sources...but this is LotusLand and a disproportionate number of NIMBY's with "potential" axes to grind if their "potential" ox gets gored. Watch the first wind farm or tidal generation application...perhaps instead harness the energy of the shit hitting the fan first when its built near someone's little bit of paradise.
Also big environmental lobby groups.....
Throw in the fact of First Nations(FN) Land treaties and how FN's are new players in all this ....its a huge legal dog's breakfast.
Its a whole new game since the last major projects were built.
These types of factors individually and collectively play in the big picture, and lead to the paths chosen in the future. The mega projects dams very likley won't be built, or not in the near future, hence other sources are required to meet future demand.
Alcibiades
5 years ago
You need to do a lot more research. The main thing to look at are the (I think 38 or so) leases that have already been signed and the contracts and contract prices being put in place.
That's the key, plus the fact that these leases are renewable and pay virtually no royalty to the province. And they can be collected together and sold to others. Look at Westcoast Transmission for an example of what I mean.
This is a privatization of all future generating capacity - to provide profits for the Premier's friends - financed by the electricity needs of the people of BC.
We've moved from a system where all of our needs were provided by a single operator that was run in the public sphere and for the public's benefit to a real dog's breakfast. Whether or not the generating capacity of BC's rivers is going to be limited by global warming is a non sequitur - whatever actions need to be taken in the future would be better done through a crown corporation operating with the needs of the 'whole' population in mind.
That's what I mean about highest and best use.
We aren't choosing paths for the future of the province - the Campbell government is handing pearls to its friends.
It certainly is a new game, and like everything Campbell has done since elected, it's fixed!
maestro
5 years ago
You deftly dodge my sub-premise re the gridlock environmentalism played...quit tap dancing in the subjectivity minefield.
Quit the chicken little routine .
PS Is that more simple and to the point ???
Alcibiades
5 years ago
Sorry, still too slow maestro, pick up the tempo....think about this:
You're the guy doing routines.
Check out those contracts.
Kemano completion is yesterday's story.
Just like Rafe is yesterday's journalist.
loverofalllife
5 years ago
I think I gave up when Gordo bribed all government workers with giving them back the wages they lost with new contracts and signing bonus's and then come election time they all voted for him AGAIN. Stupid dumb BCers. Where was the gain?
maestro
5 years ago
Again missing the big picture...
The present and future is rooted in the past.
The way Lefties have a huge disconnect on that FACT is why the left is best kept in opposition, talking into the wind, ...pissing into the wind.....and yet STILL not hooking up the power of the wind.
In the present and future, I'll avoid buying chicken little hard hats....and " worry " about this issue if and when it happens.
BC Dude
5 years ago
4 days ago maestro you made a comment about who would pay this litigation or trial for treason.
Well the taxpayers are going to eventually pay for all this only in U.S. dollars if we don't start now.
maestro instead of always being negative as you be known to do or say.
And what the hell are we doing over in Afghanistan as an aggressor force or lap dog for the USA as they are bogged down in an illegal war?
Rumsfeld is finally getting the boot but he should be brought up a war crimes against humanity along with Cheney and Bush
BC Dude
5 years ago
maestro silence oh well
http://bctrialofbasi-virk.blogspot.com/
morechatter
5 years ago
"They did it because they can", it often dosen't get more complicated than this when it comes to corruption in government, business etc....
We demanded our policticans ensure the laws not exempt them from wrong doing and we were promised an accountable government but for all I have heard about openess and transparency I am unable to see it. Infact it is almost impossible to find information because of all the chaos a good way to cover a trail. We will be ranting for a live long day and nothing is going to change until laws are put into place to make our politicans accountable for their actions or lack of.
maestro
5 years ago
BC Dude:
BTW Some topics' comments wither away, hence less pro -activeness in keeping up.
To be upfront....what I prefer to do, given I am not part of the trial, and especially not a member of the jury, is to read the Judgements (available on line)as they appear AFTER the trial has concluded.
Re class action...my reference was that WE pay, ie sue the Gov't???, we pay the judgemnt if we win...a zero sum game.
The Judgements lay out the case A to Z...vs. the lynch mob mentality by those who lather it up.
I'm not negative, I'm debating "The World according to Leftie" who actually ARE the negative ones...don't confuse it.
PS I've read the Basi-Virk blog many times.
BC Dude
5 years ago
damn is anybody else getting their blog's rerouted?
maestro
A nation can survive its fools, and even the ambitious. But it cannot survive treason from within. An enemy at the gates is less formidable, for he is known and carries his banner openly. But the traitor moves amongst those within the gate freely, his sly whispers rustling through all the alleys, heard in the very halls of government itself. For the traitor appears not a traitor; he speaks in accents familiar to his victims, and he wears their face and their arguments, he appeals to the baseness that lies deep in the hearts of all men. He rots the soul of a nation, he works secretly and unknown in the night to undermine the pillars of the city, he infects the body politic so that it can no longer resist. A murder is less to fear: Cicero Marcus Tullius
Alcibiades
5 years ago
It's not a JURY trial.