Damn that would be a nice project, if it goes ahead. Feed the American power, when they forget to pay, unplug there extension cord.

Does anyone know what happened to the Columbia power. Didn't they owe us billions??????

The provincial government is getting the benefits of that treaty in the form of cash at present. There is no electrical shortage in BC. This is just all part of the process of privatizing hydro and having a large American presence in our electrical system.

In a few short years we will be having the highest priced electricity going !

Site C I wish they would build, but not a P3 but good old BCHydro way. It has resulted in us having the second or third best electrical rates in Canada so why screw up a known good way of doing things.

Agree lunarbase!
And actually,I think they should build it,
but I also think that we will get what they choose to build, as well as the format they use,with very little say from the peanut gallery.
I also agree that a major whack in the residential hydro rates we all pay is coming very soon, and it ain't going to be pretty!
There is far more behind this issue than any of us even begin to know or understand.
Looking at the schedule,we get a whole 3 hours in PG on the 18th.of June,to partake in the process.
That pretty much tells us how much they care what anybody thinks!
I also agree,build it the old B.C.Hydro way.
No P3.!

We do export power at times and we import power, overall we are needing more power. There is no hidden agenda except for the high cost contracts given out to IPP's. That is going to drive your rates way up. Its all part of campbell and company selling out the province.

We have the third lowest hydro rates in north america because of hydro electric power but campbell and company are putting an end to that, that is the real story.

I think the real story with site C is how it has been in and then out of favour so many times. A couple of years ago they were talking around site c and then started talking about coal fired plants and independent producers and all that. I thought , at the time it was , well retarded given the whole greenhouse gas thing.
Now the site C roller coaster is rolling and it will go ahead, i suspect regardless of what people say. I think most of us are familiar with the public consultation process. The fact is that once they start public consultations the decision has pretty much been made. SO what gives? If it is a good idea now (and i think it is) then why was it not a good idea a few years ago? OR 10 years ago? It just goes to show how public opinion can be manipulated for good or ill, and that good sense or logic or even scientific fact take a back seat.
Maybe someone can clear this up for me though. I thought we imported a significant amount of powere from alberta and the US. Is this true and if so, how much?

Build it, sell it to the States and Campbell and crew have made another milestone in selling off our assets at tha taxpayers expense, and they are padding their pockets.

Not sure what pockets are being padded,
but I feel there is a pair of pants somewhere with a little extra cash in it.
I have absolutely no doubt this will go ahead.
They have been threatening to do this for a number of years.
And they will get to add some more green tax to my hydro bill.
Yes, it is there!

caranmacil wrote:- "Maybe someone can clear this up for me though. I thought we imported a significant amount of power from Alberta and the US. Is this true and if so, how much?"

The power we import from the US and Alberta is thermally generated. In the case of Alberta, from coal fired power plants. To enable a thermal plant to operate efficiently it has to operate at capacity 24 hours a day.

In the off-peak periods, generally overnight, BC Hydro reduces its own hydro-electric generation and imports thermally generated power, which allows those thermal plants to still operate at peak efficiency. (Otherwise there'd be no place to get rid of that power, and they'd have to throttle down.)

While at the same time this allows BC Hydro to build up extra water storage behind the dams to increase its own generating capacity during peak periods, when it exports power back into the NA power grid.

We are told that we're a net importer of power now. What we're NOT told is whether that's on a kilowatt-hour basis or on a dollar basis.

We could well be importing more power than we're exporting on a kilowatt-hour basis if we're buying it in the off-peak periods when its cost to BC Hydro is low.

But we could still be way ahead on a dollar basis, if Hydro is selling power for export during the daytime peak periods when the price it can charge for it is high.

socredible,

you are correct re the peak times, re the dollars; we were ahead 2 years
ago and I believe we still are,

the premium price we get at peak times
covers the deficit

we can become independant re Burrard yet
it will cost us for the natural gas
not woth the pride vs. cheap import power

sorry re spelling

While Site C would indeed be a great project, especially with all the doom and gloom hanging over our forest industry right now, and the power it generates will definitely be needed, if not now, certainly in the future, we should realize that with Provincial accounting systems operating as they are at present, 'financially' WE are going to PAY a great deal MORE for its building than what most realize.

We certainly will pay for it in our future Hydro bills, that goes without saying. Both its actual construction costs, plus, over time, all the costs of borrowing the money to build it.

But while it's being built we'll be paying for it once again. Through the constant rise in prices of all Consumer goods that'll occur as soon as its construction starts.

We need only look back to those heady, grand, old, dam building days of yesteryear, to those wonderful WAC Bennett years of the '60's, when it seemed as if the "BC boom" would never end.

Well, it did end. "Inflation" ended it, and a lot sooner than anyone expected. And with it the long-running careers of many of those in government. Good people, and a good government, by and large, whose biggest mistake was they thought they could control "inflation" before it got away on them . But found they couldn't. Not using the methods tried then ~ wage controls superimposed on a flawed accounting system

Have we LEARNED anything since then?

Gordon Campbell certainly HASN'T. For all the 'prosperity' he's so proud to take credit for, as his government seeks to make BC "number one" again, is nothing but thinly disguised "inflation."

Who is REALLY ever advantaged by a continual rise in prices? Nobody that 'consumes' anything they have to pay MORE for, that's for sure. And isn't that ALL OF US?

"Prosperity" is when your STANDARD of living rises faster than your COST of living.

For most British Columbians, even those whose standard of living is still increasing, our cost of living continues to outpace it. That ISN'T "prosperity", and anyone who says it is is delusional. It's pure "inflation", and nothing else.

Build the Site C dam, by all means. But before it goes ahead lets "learn" from past mistakes, and move to correct the 'inflation' problem. A problem anyone who takes the time to think about it knows is going to occur.

It is NOT an insurrmountable problem, there ARE ways to rectify it and prevent it from happening again. All it takes is a willingness to explore the techniques required and find a way to apply them.

I can't find the figures right now, but the contacts with the IPP's are more than the cost of site C. Also with site C another interior valley gets flooded for lotus land. Lets see them down south cover the valley with wind mills and generate some of their own power. Wind mills on english bay, know that would be a sight.

This project should most definitely not go ahead if it is in anyway built, managed, or operated in any form of P3.

The only way I could support a project like this is if it is built (Project managed), owned, and operated by the Crown corporation of BC hydro.

BC can not under any circumstances, of any politician generated hypothetical scenario, allow itself to further the precedence of private for profit ownership of our watershed resource.

To do so is tantamount to treason committed on all future generations to follow... for the short term profiteering of present day politicians.

I don't trust the BC liberals to follow policy in the best interests of British Columbia on this issue at all. Therefor I can not support this project until this issue is perfectly clear.

Time Will Tell

gordy - you wll do as your told by the banksters, dam her up , sell er out,don,t go against the bank they might not lend you money on our collateral.

Wouldn't it be a better investment for BC Hydro (us) to buy up the Alcan water rights?

It was amazing that the Bennet Dam was even built, look at the paperwork and consulting that has to be done. Remember they built the Bennet Dam before computers were available for everyone so all that paperwork had to be done by hand!

Yama thats about the most agreeable thing I've ever seen you write. I'll second that opinion.