Along the proposed route of the Northern Gateway pipeline, nothing is moving.
There is no clearing, mowing, grading, trenching, drilling, boring or blasting. Industry analysts have almost stopped asking questions because interested parties – contractors, engineering firms and others – have moved on to more realistic prospects. Meanwhile, the estimated cost of the project has climbed to $7.9-billion, while not one of the 209 conditions attached to its environmental certificate has been checked off as complete.
With work already under way on the banks where the dam is to be built, it might seem as if Site C is a done deal.
Premier Christy Clark certainly hopes so. She views the start of the $9-billion project as one of her two greatest accomplishments (the other being an agreement in principle with Petronas for proposed development of an $11-billion LNG plant).
But despite all the activity by contractors building access roads and clearing land for work camps, tunnels and dam foundations, BC Hydro’s Site C project could yet be brought to a halt.
B.C. Premier Christy Clark’s own climate change advisors will recommend a hike in the province’s carbon tax to avoid a complete blowout of a year 2020 climate target due to an aggressive push to build a highly polluting liquefied natural gas (LNG) industry, National Observer has learned.
The government is expected to make the premier’s Climate Leadership Team’s report public Friday at 1 p.m. in Victoria, ahead of Clark’s trip to Paris for the UN climate summit next week.
A series of new aerial photographs show the massive scale of early construction work on the $8.8-billion Site C dam.
Victoria-based photographer Garth Lenz flew over what will be the dam site in June 2014 and returned Sunday to re-shoot the area. Lenz said even though he had flown over the site before, he was not prepared for what he saw.
“I was surprised at how big an area was being destroyed,” said Lenz, who photographed just a few kilometres of a flood zone that stretches more than 80 kilometres upriver.
BC Hydro’s decision to push forward with a $1.5-billion construction contract for the Site C dam megaproject has prompted an outpouring of opposition from First Nations and environmental and advocacy groups across British Columbia.
The Crown corporation’s president and chief executive officer, Jessica McDonald, announced on Wednesday that the utility is poised to sign the largest deal in its history with Peace River Hydro Partners as the preferred proponent.
Peace Valley Landowner Assoc. [mailto:pvla@xplornet.com]
From: Peace Valley Landowner Assoc. [mailto:pvla@xplornet.com] Sent: November 21, 2015 1:09 PM Subject: Honouring Treaty Promises and Restoring Confidence in Federal Site C Decisions
