BC Hydro to pay Ft. St. John at least a Million a Year During Site C Construction
Ft. St. John, B.C. – It has been years in the making, but there is finally a deal between the City of Fort St. John and B.C. Hydro over the impacts of the construction of Site C.
With up to 1500 workers to be on the Site C job at peak construction, the City of Ft. St. John has expressed concerns on its ability to deal with the impacts of such a large work force in the community. The City has long expressed concerns about stresses on infrastructure.
The new Community Measures Agreement is an agreement in principle and will see BC Hydro paying the City $1 million a year during each year of construction, an amount that will be boosted by 3.5% per year.
Other cash components will see BCHydro contribute:
- $100,000 per year for eight years to a community fund to assist non-profit agencies in the Peace Region.
- $250,000 to local non-profits that provide emergency and transitional housing services, including the recent $200,000 donation to the Salvation Army’s Northern Centre of Hope.
- $75,000 this year to support local charities identified by the City.
- Approximately $430 thousand dollars of pre-purchase tickets for the use of Ft. ST. John recreation facilities over the course of construction.
- funding for one additional police officer to be based out of the Fort St. John RCMP detachment, and will also conduct regular traffic monitoring on local roads near the project.
The City of Fort St. John is presenting the deal to residents before it signs off on the agreement.
Comments
go site c
Sounds like Hydro was more than willing to smooth things over with the City of Fort St. John.
The concerns raised by the City are very real and significant of course.
Hydro is spreading cash around to create goodwill, all in the interest of good p.r. for the controversial project they call Site C. I’m sure they hope to win over some of the folks who do not believe this new dam is the best thing everrr!
metalman.
Anyone one and all have there price……NO SHITTE C….
Actually this has been done before. Its the right thing to do as Ft. John would have added costs.
Thank BC Hydro, for recognizing the impact that your going to be making on the community and its infrastructure. Yes, the project will bring a lot of transient workers, with it comes problems.
I think paying for just one additional officer may be on the light side. I would assume the camps will have their own policing, but I suspect there will be increased issues in town because of the workers.
A nice problem to have in a tough economic times… Good on you B C Hydro
i guess the price of hydro is going up again. Yay
Putting the cart before the horse….this project hasn’t cleared all the legal hurdles yet. But there is no better way to garner public support than making promises of large cash presents being given out.
Jim this is nothing new. It is the right way to deal with the huge impact the project will have on Ft. St John and local area.
Boudicca what do you think of the 65 billion in contracts to the IPP’s, very expensive power hydro is forced to buy before its own cheaper power?
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