Site C Cancellation Costs Exaggerated, Says Chief

The estimates for what it will cost to restore areas already damaged during the construction of the Site C dam are being exaggerated, says Chief Roland Willson of the West Moberly First Nations.

“The Peace country is very resilient,” Willson said at a news conference in Victoria Monday. “All they’ve got to do is make it safe, make the site safe, deal with those tension cracks they have, and then leave. Go home. It will take care of itself.”

Kill Site C, Former Hydro CEO Tells Commission

Mismanagement, politically motivated decision-making and lack of transparency have dogged BC Hydro’s support for the Site C dam, says a new report submitted to the BC Utilities Commission by the former CEO of BC Hydro.

The project is already over budget, more big cost overruns are coming and BC Hydro’s demand forecasts justifying the project are overstated, Marc Eliesen warns in his second submission to the BCUC panel reviewing the megaproject.

Site C Called First Test for NDP’s Commitment to Indigenous Rights

Recent experiences with the federal government have left Prophet River First Nation member Helen Knott wary of government promises.
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So while she and other Indigenous people are excited about NDP provincial government commitments to adopt the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, words are not enough. And the Site C dam in northeastern B.C., they say, will be the government’s first test of its commitment.

Site C dam project has become 'uneconomic' and should be suspended: UBC report

A new report is calling for the suspension of B.C.'s Site C dam project, saying it's no longer going to benefit the provincial economy as once expected and that power from the hydroelectric station will likely be exported at losses of up to $1 billion.

The report on water governance released Tuesday looks at which option would be best for B.C. from a business standpoint: cancelling, suspending or finishing the $8.5-billion project.

United Nations Says Canada’s Largest Park Under Threat, Calls for Site C Review

If the federal government continues to avoid its environmental responsibilities, Canada’s largest national park could soon be listed as a “world heritage site in danger” due to threats posed by energy development and nearby hydro dams, says the United Nations.

Moreover, the government should immediately conduct an “environmental and social impact assessment of the Site C project,” which threatens to alter the flow of water through the Peace Athabasca Delta in the heart of the 4.5-million-hectare Wood Buffalo National Park, located north of the tar sands.

Federal approval for Site C dam ignites outrage

VANCOUVER — First Nations and environmental groups say they’re outraged after the federal government quietly issued permits last week allowing a controversial hydroelectric project in northeastern British Columbia to ramp up construction.

On Friday, the Department of Fisheries and Oceans cleared the way for the province’s power utility to move forward with the Site C dam.

Toxic Landslides Raise Alarms about Fracking, Site C

Toxic heavy metals including arsenic, barium, cadmium, lithium, and lead are flowing into the Peace River following a series of unusual landslides that may be linked to natural gas industry fracking operations.

The landslides began nearly two years ago and show no sign of stopping. So far, they have killed all fish along several kilometres of Brenot and Lynx creeks just downstream from the community of Hudson's Hope.

Site C, LNG Break Trudeau's Promise to First Nations

It all started off so well. Justin Trudeau launched his career as Prime Minister with big promises to First Nations and the growing number of Canadians concerned about the environment. He installed indigenous MPs in key portfolios like Justice and Fisheries; vowed a new respect for Aboriginal people and their rights; re-introduced the climate to Environment Canada.

But five months later, it appears former New York Governor Mario Cuomo was right when he famously said, “You campaign in poetry. You govern in prose.” And the prose Justin Trudeau is authoring these days tells a very different story than it did on the campaign trail.

They're Killing the Peace River Valley Now

Last month the B.C government commenced the destruction of the fertile Peace River Valley, awarding a civil works contract worth $1.5 billion as construction crews methodically denuded the landscape of trees.

Taxpayers will be on the hook for at least $7.5 billion more by the time the devastation is done. The question looming larger than ever is whether the Peace River Valley must be sacrificed at all.

Opposed to Site C, NDP Has a Plan B

Instead of building the controversial Site C dam on the Peace River, a British Columbia New Democratic Party government would spread jobs around the province by retrofitting buildings and supporting renewable energy projects, party leader John Horgan is announcing today.

The announcement provides more detail on a plan Horgan mentioned during his Nov. 7 speech to the NDP convention. "There are a whole range of options we're going to put forward," Horgan said following that speech.

Site C Dam: First Nations Go To Court To Halt Project

VANCOUVER — Two northeastern British Columbia First Nations will suffer "irreparable harm'' if thousands of hectares of old-growth forest are cleared to build the Site C dam, their lawyer says.

John Gailus told B.C. Supreme Court that a stop-work order should be issued to halt the first phase of the nearly $9-billion hydroelectric project from proceeding along the Peace River.

As Site C Breaks Ground, Linked Union Declares Opposition

The union representing many British Columbia government workers has taken a position against building the Site C dam, a project some of its members are working on and that other unions support.

"This was a membership driven motion," said Stephanie Smith, the president of the B.C. Government and Service Employees' Union. "We have 68,000 members and there is a diversity of interests."

Smith said the motion was brought forward by the union's environment committee and passed unanimously. There was no debate even though Smith invited discussion, she said.

Peace Valley group appeals fail to quash Site C dam

Legal opposition to the Site C hydroelectric dam in northern British Columbia is ramping up just as BC Hydro and the province are announcing their first collaborative contract related to the megaproject.

Farmers and ranchers in the Peace River area are appealing a decision by B.C. Supreme Court last month to reject a bid to quash the proposed dam, which they say would flood large portions of prime agricultural land.

BC Gov't Ignores Review Panel, Pursues Site C

With a price tag of $8.8 billion, the construction of the Site C dam would entail the largest outlay of taxpayer money in B.C. history.

That's 18 times the cost of B.C.'s fast ferries. Or 11 times the cost of a sewage treatment facility for the Capital Regional District. Heck, it's the most expensive infrastructure project currently proposed in all of Canada.

Yet a BC Hydro survey in July 2014 found only six in 10 British Columbians had even heard of the project.

Site C floods will wash away 12,000 years of human history

Archeologist Jonathan Driver was part of the team that uncovered, more than 30 years ago, what was at that time one of the rarest archeological finds in Canadian history: A treasure trove of evidence of human occupation in Northern B.C. that dates back to the end of the last ice age.

The site, known as the Charlie Lake cave or Tse’K’wa, contained some of the oldest human remains in Western Canada, specialized weapons used to hunt large mammals such as bison and mammoth, and animal skeletons that suggest ancient ceremonial practices.

Site C dam granted BC Province environmental assessment approval

Site C Clean Energy project, a proposed $7.9 billion dam seven kilometres southwest from Fort St. John, is in the public interest, Environment Minister Mary Polak and Forests Minister Steve Thomson stated today in a press release.

The ministers issued an environmental assessment certificate to BC Hydro after concluding that the benefits of the project on Peace River outweighs the environmental, social and heritage effects.

Site C Review Process Lacked Independence, Says Northern Mayor

Local municipal and First Nations officials from northeastern B.C.'s Peace River area renewed their opposition to the proposed 1,100-megawatt Site C hydroelectric dam at a press briefing Tuesday.

In front of them on a long table, laid out like Leonardo Da Vinci's Last Supper, were succulent cantaloupes and pots of honey produced in their fertile agricultural region, which could see an 83-kilometre stretch of riverside land submerged if Site C gets the green light.

What the Site C Dam is really for: an explosion of new fracking wells

The idea that the proposed Site C Dam on the Peace River is going to be used for supplying electrical energy to all of British Columbia is utterly naïve.

I say this because the site of this proposed project is directly over the Montney Formation shale gas deposit, with reserves of 449 trillion cubic feet of marketable natural gas, 14,521 million barrels of marketable natural gas liquids (NGLs) and 1,125 million barrels of oil.