The B.C. government will continue constructing the Site C dam even though it will be delayed by a year and the budget has more than doubled to $16 billion.ANNOUNCEMENTS, EVENTS & MORE FROM TYEE AND SELECT PARTNERSLet’s Talk About The Tyee’s Impact Browse our report to see what we were able to do with reader support in 2020.The Tyee Is Hiring Its Fifth Emerging Indigenous Reporting Fellow This is an eight-week paid position offered through a partnership with Journalists for Human Rights. Come join our team!“The project is facing new challenges, and we are committed to managing it in the best interests of British Columbians,” Premier John Horgan said in a press release provided to reporters ahead of a public announcement.“Cancelling it would cause people’s electricity rates to skyrocket, and we will not burden people with additional financial stress during these difficult times with nothing to show for it,” he said. “Site C is already 50-per-cent finished, and our government will complete this project, ensuring British Columbians have clean and affordable power for decades to come.”The government attributed the delay and budget increase to a combination of geotechnical issues and measures put in place due to the COVID-19 pandemic.Cancelling the project now would still cost $10 billion that would need to be covered by either BC Hydro ratepayers or taxpayers, it said.Background materials on the decision point to various benefits, including the economic stimulus of an undertaking that employs some 4,500 people and the role of hydro power in helping B.C. meet its carbon emission reduction targets.The government also released two reports on the project.Bad News on Site C: Budget, Schedule at RiskREAD MORE One was from Peter Milburn, a former deputy minister, who the government appointed last July as a special advisor to work with BC Hydro and the Project Assurance Board and advise the government. He made 17 recommendations in his 40-page report dated Oct. 10, 2020 to improve governance, all of which the government said it has accepted and is implementing.The other report was from John France and Kaare Høeg, technical experts the Project Assurance Board appointed to advise on geotechnical issues.They found that BC Hydro’s plans to enhance the foundation on the right bank of the river will make the structures safe and serviceable over Site C’s operating life and that the dam can be safely constructed in a way that meets all Canadian Dam Association safety and reliability guidelines.Milburn’s appointment came following an update to the BC Utilities Commission last year in which BC Hydro flagged “serious concerns” about the Site C dam’s schedule, scope and budget.The Site C Mess: Notes for the InvestigatorREAD MORE There were delays due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the utility said, but also a problem discovered on the right bank of the river requiring stronger foundations under the powerhouse, spillway and core areas of the future dam.BC Hydro couldn’t say what it would cost to fix it.The third of a series of dams on the Peace River, Site C would flood an 83-kilometre-long stretch of the river to generate enough electricity to power 450,000 homes.There has been steady opposition to the project. Ahead of the October election a group of 18 prominent British Columbians released a statement urging the government to reconsider continuing with construction. They included former BC Hydro CEO Marc Eliesen, former ICBC CEO Robyn Allan, the Union of BC Indian Chiefs’ Grand Chief Stewart Phillip and Harry Swain, who chaired the Site C Joint Review Panel that completed its work in 2014.Site C’s Radical, Risky MakeoverREAD MORE “The prudent course of action — one that respects Indigenous and treaty rights as well as the interests of all taxpayers and hydro ratepayers — is to immediately suspend all construction activities at the project,” they wrote. “This includes the imminent and critical river diversion. It’s folly to allow that diversion to occur when geotechnical woes of unknown magnitude abound at the construction site.”Before the NDP formed government in 2017, the previous BC Liberal government had pledged to get Site C past the point of no return. The incoming government ordered a review of the project and consulted with professionals who were for and against continuing. It ultimately decided to keep going, saying it would cost too much to cancel the project.The budget for Site C was $7.9 billion in 2010. By the time the NDP decided to continue construction it had grown to $10.7 billion. It was to begin power generation in 2023 and be completed by 2024.It is now expected to be in service in 2025.
Source: Horgan Pressing on with Site C as Budget Soars to $16 Billion | The Tyee
