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.
Which living person has done most to destroy the natural world and the future wellbeing of humanity? Donald Trump will soon be the correct answer, when the full force of his havoc has been felt. But for now I would place another name in the frame. Angela Merkel.
The B.C. Utilities Commission barely made the cabinet-imposed deadline for a preliminary report on Site C this week, posting the findings just four hours before the clock ran out at midnight Wednesday.
VICTORIA — The B.C. Utilities Commission barely made the cabinet-imposed deadline for a preliminary report on Site C this week, posting the findings just four hours before the clock ran out at midnight Wednesday.
It’s too early to say whether the B.C. Hydro Site C project can be completed on time and on budget, according to a preliminary report from the B.C. Utilities Commission.
In its report on the $8.8-billion hydro-power project, filed late Wednesday to meet a provincial government deadline, the Commission said the project is currently on time and, indeed, has a year’s worth of contingency time built in. It says B.C. Hydro appears to be pushing ahead more aggressively than planned and if it experiences no delays, it could be producing power a year ahead of schedule, in 2023.
Last week, Prof. Mark Jaccard penned a passionate defence of Site C in order to meet environmental standards in 2050. His aims are honest. His environmental goals are imperative. Sadly, his utility planning skills may not be up to the task.
Karen Goodings avoids the Site C dam area on the Peace River because she finds it too heart-wrenching to look at the havoc caused by construction work, but, for the first time in years, she is now holding out hope that the $8.8-billion project will be scrapped.
“I want to see it permanently stopped and now I think there is enough information out there to talk about alternate sources of power that are more economical and less devastating,” said Goodings, a Peace River Regional District director.
