Energy

For years British Columbians have been left in the dark about the most expensive public project in our history.

All of that came to an end on Wednesday when the B.C. Utilities Commission (BCUC) issued its final report on the Site C dam.

The results are, well, damning.

VICTORIA — Tucked into the back pages of the B.C. Utilities Commission review of Site C is an intriguing discussion of a replacement source of electricity that wouldn’t require B.C. to build anything.

The option, laid out in a seven page annex, would see B.C. reclaim its entitlement to a share of the power generated on the US side of the border under the 50-year-old Columbia River Treaty.

Essentially, B.C. (standing in for Canada) agreed to build a series of dams on our side of the border to manage volatile water flows on the Columbia River.

British Columbia's NDP government is facing controversy over liquefied natural gas as environmental groups warn that a project led by Royal Dutch Shell PLC will derail the province's efforts to transition to a low-carbon economy.

Methanol, LNG, and power plants drive Canada’s gas industry.

Marc Eliesen said project not needed, costs underestimated and consumers at risk.

Andrew Nikiforuk is an award-winning journalist who has been writing about the energy industry for two decades and is a contributing editor to The Tyee. Find his previous stories here.

Columnist Mike Smyth writes about the building evidence against the Site C dam. Will the NDP pull the plug on the controversial project?

As the NDP government’s fast-tracked review of the Site C dam continues, bad news about the controversial megaproject is piling up on a near-daily basis.

A former manager with the Site C dam project has filed a wrongful dismissal lawsuit alleging he was fired after he raised concerns about safety in the workplace.

Kent Peyton said that in January he was hired to get construction of the Peace River dam on schedule and on budget and that he was responsible for all high-level decision-making related to the excavation process as well as being in charge of the health and safety of all workers.

VICTORIA — The B.C. Utilities Commission moved quickly Wednesday to block public access to the uncensored version of an independent review it commissioned into Site C.

At 8 a.m., the communications director for the commission, Erica Hamilton, called Robert McCullough, the Portland, Ore.-based energy expert who’d posted an unredacted copy of the report by Deloitte LLP on his website.

She asked him to take down the offending version of the report and he obliged.

VICTORIA — B.C. Hydro was nine per cent over budget and already dipping into contingency funds from day one on the main construction contract at Site C, according to the uncensored version of a report to the B.C. Utilities Commission.

The troubles continue to the present day, with the $1.8 billion main civil works contract having run through three quarters of its contingency budget with only one quarter of the work being done.