Site C Open Houses Start This Week
Prince George, B.C. – Another round of open houses is slated to start later this week to bring people in the area of the Site C dam construction up to date on the project.As reported on 250News last week, there is activity that could start on BC Hydro owned lands in as little as a week.
Site C spokesperson, Dave Conway says there are five open houses slated for the five communities in the region. It starts in Taylor on the 8th at the Taylor community Hall from 6-8:30pm. The next night will see the Site C team at the Pomeroy Hotel in Ft. St. John .”What we’re doing with the open houses is we’re going out and we’re talking to people about the construction activity they can expect to see particularly related to the community that we’re going to be in” says Conway, “So, what can Taylor expect, what can Dawson Creek, Chetwynd, Ft. St. John Hudson’s Hope expect to see?”
Conway says they will explain the sequencing of the activity, and gather some information on how people would like to be informed about the project moving forward.
Despite the fact the open houses are taking place during the height of summer when plenty of folks have vacation on their minds, Conway expects a good turnout. “We’ve done this in the past, at different times, we try to be out in a timely manner to be able to provide people with information about the project. We have seen good crowds in the past and we expect that we will continue to see good turnout for the open houses.”
After the Taylor and Ft. St. John sessions, the Open houses will resume on Tuesday the 14th at the Pearkes centre in Hundson’s Hope, again from 6 p.m. t0 8:30pm, then to Chetwynd on the 15th at the Recreation Centre (6-8:30 pm) and wrapping up I Dawson Creek on Thursday the 16th at the Fixx Urban Grill.
Comments
Build it.
Don’t build it.
Build it bigger
Should have been built 30 years ago!
when all existing generators are run at full capacity and can not service the needs of BRITISH COLUMBIANS then consider it.
‘when all existing generators are run at full capacity and can not service the needs of BRITISH COLUMBIANS then consider it.’
That’s a great way to plan a multi-billion dollar, 10 year duration construction project. Wait until there’s a crisis ‘then consider it’.
They are just rubbing our noses in it …saying
SEE WE TOLD YOU WE WERE GOING TO DO THIS..
regardless of what people think or feel.
There is no bona fide case for Site C. This is a BC Hydro, long term job security program, and a BC Government make work program because the economy is going into the toilet. Surely we could find better ways of spending some money than putting thousands of acres of good farm land under water.
With all the industry that has shut down in BC in the past 20 years, ie; pulp mills, sawmills, plywood plants, railways, etc; etc; there is absolutely no shortage of power in BC.
Site C will generate enough power to supply 450,000 homes, however we do not have now, nor are we likely to have any time in the fore seeable future 450,000 new homes. Do the numbers. It doesn’t make sense.
This is about cushy contracts for the connected, and a few jobs, its certainly not about a need for power.
The power will be sold to the USA and under the Free Trade Agreement once we sell it to them we are committed to continue to sell it. So sometime in the future when we have a real shortage of power we will have to get it from somewhere else. My guess would be Natural Gas Generating plants.
So cheap power for the Americans, and sometime in the future expensive power for the citizens of BC.
What? Don’t they have a few court cases to win before they can begin building site C??
So what is wrong with selling it to the USA, as long as they are willing to pay the going rate. Or with them, it should be payment up front. Can’t trust an American, they bent us over on the Columbia deal.
It’s our power, we will sell them the excess power only. It will only help balance our budget. Go for it.
Wait till we need it! that is funny. Sort of like planting potatoes because you just ran out of them yesterday.
Build it.
1. With a price tag of $8 billion, Site C is the largest proposed infrastructure project in Canada. In its first four years, the dam is expected to lose $800 million while it sells surplus power at a third of what it costs to produce it. Building Site C would take eight years — an eternity in the world of energy markets. Consider this: in the past five years, solar costs have dropped 80 per cent, while wind costs have dropped 35 per cent.
2. The Clean Energy Association of B.C. recently put forth a portfolio of renewable options it says would cost $1 billion less than Site C over the next 70 years. What’s more, the joint review panel took the B.C. government to task for failing to pursue research into B.C.’s geothermal resources over the last 31 years (the last time Site C was rejected). Even with next to no research, BC Hydro has estimated geothermal energy could economically replace two-thirds of Site C’s power.
3. The joint review panel said BC Hydro failed to prove that Site C’s power is needed in the immediate future. Even if the liquefied natural gas (LNG) industry takes off, it wouldn’t justify building the dam. LNG plants are likely to be powered by natural gas and, even if they did use electricity, the power would be required before Site C became operational circa 2024, according to the panel.
4. The Site C dam would impact 13,000 hectares of agricultural land — including flooding 3,800 hectares of farmland in the Agricultural Land Reserve (ALR), an area nearly twice the size of the city of Victoria. That’s roughly equivalent to taking the agricultural land base in Delta out of production. Those Peace Valley lands could produce fresh fruits and vegetables for a million people, says agrologist Wendy Holm.
5. “The project would be accompanied by significant environmental and social costs, and the costs would not be borne by those who benefit,” wrote the review panel. B.C.’s Peace region is already home to two mega hydro dams and 16,267 oil and gas well sites. “We have become the cash register for the province…Now our way of life is going to be interfered with again,” Liz Logan, Treaty 8 Tribal Association Chief, said. West Moberly Chief Roland Willson has vowed to challenge the decision in court if an environmental assessment certificate is granted.
In a nutshell: while mega dams may have been a bright idea in the 1960s, in 2014 there are smarter ways of generating electricity. Instead of toiling over an outdated project, let’s move on to 21st century energy solutions.
www. vancouverobserver.com/opinion/five-reasons-why-bc-doesnt-need-site-c-dam
Good post Sophic Sage. You list a number of things that should be but are not common knowledge to many people.
Site C is nothing more than a convoluted vision of BC Hydro and the BC Government which shows just how far they have drifted from reality.
Site C is a make work program during an economic downturn and about about securing centralized generation and distribution in the face of more affordable self-generation options.
The agricultural land is a nonstarter argument. If we were that short on farmland we wouldn’t be filling existing farmland with planted trees as carbon credits.
Interceptor. The land is owned by others, and they are within their rights to keep it as farmland if they so chose. The Government of the day needs to show that there is a public need for this power and that flooding the land is a necessary part of that. They have not made the case.
Its easy for those who live somewhere else to support flooding other peoples land, that is until the day they want to flood you out. Then you sing a different song.
The Government is counting on the collective ignorance of the majority of the people in this Province to advance this project. I am sure they appreciate your support.
“If we were that short on farmland we wouldn’t be filling existing farmland with planted trees as carbon credits.”
We aren’t, the Chinese are.
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