NDP Members Come Out Against Horgan's Site C Capitulation

Site C Letter to Editors in BC from NDP Members

by BC NDP Membership Opposing Site C

January 23, 2018

Dear Editor,

We are members of the New Democratic Party of BC who are deeply disappointed with the government's decision to proceed with Site C. While it is painful and difficult to speak out, it’s in times like these when truthfulness and principled honesty are most needed.

We will not be silent, and we hope our voices encourage more people to examine why this decision is a terrible mistake.

There are strong ethical, economic and environmental reasons to terminate the dam.

Upon careful analysis, the provincial government’s arguments regarding Site C are not persuasive. This undermines public trust in our government’s commitment to affordability, a robust climate change plan and meaningful reconciliation with Indigenous people.

Since the NDP was willing to cut 4.7 billion in revenue from bridge tolls from the province’s coffers, without any word about accounting regulations or credit ratings, it should seriously examine why it is unwilling to absorb or restructure a smaller “debt” of 3 billion in order to show that it is serious about reconciliation, equity, affordability, and climate justice.

The assumption of endless growth based on mega dams to power fracking for LNG is the logic of a cancer. It is unsustainable and it will drive up our carbon emissions (including methane) at the very moment when we need to be reducing them. We need a plan for the future that builds locally resilient communities, strengthens food security and diversifies renewable energies across the entire province.

We believe that public examination of the dam’s economics, cumulative environmental impacts and accountability processes is urgently needed. There is no current need for the electricity Site C would produce. Indeed, IPPs have been paid millions to not generate energy in BC. Hydro’s forecasts have been consistently inflated for decades, as the BC Utilities Commission pointed out. If more electricity is needed in the future, it can be produced incrementally.

As economist Marc Lee (and many others) pointed out to the BC Utilities Commission, “Completing Site C will lead to higher debt for BC Hydro and higher rates for all BC Hydro customers. This will increase energy poverty among BC’s low-income households.”

We agree with Seth Klein that “unconvincing economic justifications—and the fear-mongering of credit rating downgrades—[need to] be challenged, otherwise the precedent is set for more disheartening decisions down the road.”

Moving forward, we call upon the government to:

• not engage in an expensive and morally questionable legal battle with the two First Nations whose territories are most directly impacted by the dam, and who are seeking an injunction. Not opposing their injunction would be a good first step to show that this government is serious about implementing the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People.

• pause new contracts such as the billion-dollar contract going to companies including Aecon, which is being taken over by a Chinese-state-owned company, CCCC. In light of Aecon's takeover, we urge also this government to examine what the effects of investor rights and trade agreements are on the dam and on BC ratepayers.

• consider recent developments in the price of alternative energy, which is decreasing substantially. At the rate that these trends are going, BC will spend billions more on Site C only to receive much less in return on investment. That investment could be more effectively directed in ways that generate more jobs and a more equitable social structure, as the NDP’s PowerBC plan shows. PowerBC is a wiser way to move forward to cultivate energy democracy across the entire province. In contrast, Site C may prevent diverse, more nimble, less destructive community-based alternative energies from developing by flooding the market for such energy. First Nations who spoke at the BC Utilities Commission proposed alternatives to Site C that would produce comparable energy while having Indigenous consent. We need a better distributed, community-based economic plan in our journey toward a fossil-fuel free economy.

• commit to a full-cost accounting analysis of Site C, in accordance with the NDP’s Sustainable BC vision. Using full cost accounting, the high value of the Peace River Valley is recognized as much more than “zero,” once you consider the worth of its carbon sinks (forests), fertile farmland, sacred Indigenous cultural sites, and multiple land uses. Even without predictably ballooning costs, the price of the dam is much higher than 11 billion, once we factor in the high reputational costs of not implementing UNDRIP, the loss of biodiversity and much more.

• retain as much forest intact as possible, given we are in a time of impending climate destabilization and after a summer of terrible fires. They are a natural buffer, complex functional carbon sinks that we cannot afford to lose. As a government you have the power to declare the Peace River valley a commercial asset needed for provincial food security and to use this asset’s value to offset or restructure the debt arising from Liberal mismanagement, which can gradually be repaid back over 30 years under the BCUC’s schedule.

• focus on remediation jobs to help us to transition to PowerBC. Better jobs are possible for our union brothers and sisters. As UBC’s Program on Water Governance points out, there are more long term jobs generated by terminating Site C. 

Environmental degradation poses a serious collective threat; it is not a luxury to consider this matter, but the necessary baseline if we are serious about addressing poverty in the long run. Clean water, clean air, reducing our carbon footprint: these are all simply required for our basic quality of life. We as a species need to respect the earth’s natural laws and carrying capacity.

A future worth having is built upon meaningful reconciliation with Indigenous peoples, which leads to reconciliation with the land. In terms of climate action, everyone needs the forests and farmlands intact as much as possible now. Now is not the time to turn our remaining biodiversity into sacrifice zones. BC needs the Peace River valley for the greater good of the province.

Respectfully,

Andrea Craddock
Cindy Ross Friedman
Diana French
Diane Lake
Gillian Jerome
Harold Steves
Jeanette Leitch
Jerry West
Joanne Banks
Mary Madsen
Norah Bowman
Rita Wong
Rod Marining