In the age old tradition used by politicians of every stripe who are forced to release bad news, the NDP waited until late Friday before the BC day long weekend to tell the public about the long overdue progress reports on the Site C dam.
And the news wasn’t good…. delays and rising costs related to the Covid pandemic had taken its toll, and now the project was facing cost overruns, and unknown in service date and worse yet…. a final budget figure couldn’t even be given! In fact, a quick google search shows the majority of headlines and excerpts on this by media bought the carefully crafted press messaging hook line and sinker on the Covid angle, with some not even mentioning the bigger story held within the report.
It was the infatiguable Sarah Cox of The Narwhal who immediately posted the real story... the one that no one wants to talk about, and for good reason….
“The Site C dam project is facing unknown cost overruns, schedule delays and such profound geotechnical problems that its overall health has been classified as “red,” meaning the project is in serious trouble, according to two overdue project reports released by BC Hydro on Friday.
BC Hydro and B.C. Energy Minister Bruce Ralston blamed the COVID-19 pandemic for the Site C project’s deepening woes.
Yet BC Hydro’s own reports show the project was facing significant cost and scheduling pressures long before the pandemic emerged in B.C. On March 18, B.C. declared a state of emergency, but the province deemed the Site C dam an essential service, allowing work on the $10.7 billion project to continue.
According to the reports, as of December BC Hydro was already scrambling to deal with formidable geotechnical issues on the Peace River’s notoriously unstable right bank, which is intended to provide the foundation for the project’s powerhouse, spillway and future dam. The reports said the magnitude of the geotechnical issues has become increasingly apparent this year.
~snip~
“I don’t think it’s credible [to use the pandemic] in explaining what’s happened so far,” said Harry Swain, chair of the panel that examined Site C for the provincial and federal governments.
Swain said significant problems with foundation conditions under the right bank have been known for at least two years, giving BC Hydro plenty of time to update the project’s cost and schedule.
“BC Hydro is concealing information or the government is not asking for it,” Swain told The Narwhal.
Cox was quickly followed up by Vaughn Palmers story, which left no doubt as to what was really going on here:
“The New Democrats tried Friday to blame the pandemic for the latest budget and scheduling setbacks at B.C. Hydro’s troubled Site C hydroelectric project.
But Hydro confirmed that one of the biggest problems surfaced before B.C. had its first confirmed case of COVID-19.
“At the end of December 2019, a … geological risk materialized on the right bank,” the company reported in twin filings to the overseer, the B.C. Utilities Commission.
Hydro previously had to address geotechnical problems at Site C. Some tension cracks emerged on the left (or north) bank of the Peace River when the B.C. Liberal government was in office, adding construction costs and delaying the river diversion by a year.
But the seriousness of the problem on the right (or south) bank emerged only as a result of “analysis of geological mapping and monitoring activities during construction.”
If not addressed, it threatens the stability of the entire project.
“BC Hydro identified that additional scope and design enhancements would be required to further enhance the foundations of the structures on the right bank including the powerhouse, spillways and earth fill dam.”
Yes: The fix requires shoring up the foundations of the powerhouse, the spillways and the earthen fill dam itself.
Nor is it readily apparent how to fix things, according to Hydro’s far-from-reassuring filings to the Utilities Commission.
Possible solutions include “design changes for the roller-compacted concrete core buttress to enhance the foundation with anchors, additional grouting for the earth fill dam and a shear key for the right bank of the earth fill dam.”
Plus: “Improvements to the spillways and powerhouse roller-compacted concrete buttresses (and) piles, anchors and structural support in the approach channel.”
Also: “Improvements to the drainage within the rock and changes in the design of the approach channel. The benefit of additional drainage would be to reduce the water pressure acting on the roller-compacted concrete structures.”
Hydro doesn’t even try to guess at a cost, except to predict it will be “much higher than initially expected” when the problem was first flagged at the outset of the year.
“Construction costs estimates and constructability reviews are being conducted in parallel to compare the options and evaluate the cost and schedule implications to the project.”
As somone who has repeatedly documented and broken stories on the ongoing and costly geotechnical issues for years on the notorious left bank( north bank) – with photos often sent to and followed up on by both NDP mla offices and federal NDP and Liberal MP’s – it can be said by no one in this government, that the extent of the geological conditions and associated geotechnical challenges they presented, were not known before the decision to continue this project was made. In fact,my posts and photos were often the only reason mainstream journalists even followed up on the geotechnical issues I first reported.
These issues have been brought up in hearings by experts, in BC Hydro documentation, in historical accounts of the valley…. this just isn’t ‘new’ information to BC Hydro or to the BC Liberals or to the BC NDP, and to deny they knew the extent of risk, is kind of like saying the Rocky mountains aren’t rocky.
These conditions are inherent to the entire valley, not just the left bank above and around the diversion tunnels. It is not the place to build a dam, and everyone knows it. Last year, I even posted a photo of the south bank mentioned in this new report, showing evidence of slumping, in this blog post. https://lailayuile.com/2019/07/25/placement-of-site-c-work-camp-defines-the-term-calculated-risk/
This is exactly why everyone pushed the NDP so hard not to go ahead with the dam. We knew it was going to be an expensive exercise in futility that was going to have a generational impact on Hydro ratepayers, and BC taxpayers.
But they would not listen. And we have been right the entire time. Just because you can build something, doesn’t mean you actually should.
These are screenshots from the most recent report. You can click on each one for a full view.
It’s alarming to read this. Why are they ramping up when they should be ramping down? This. Is. Time. To. Stop.
So,to recap, we have a dam project:
- that was approved *with no business plan* ever presented by the previous Liberal government, nor did they submit it to the BCUC for review prior to approval.
- that was approved in an area of the valley that the governments own report in 1991 identified as one in which development should be minimized due to the instability of the slopes. ( report linked to here https://lailayuile.com/2017/11/13/the-billion-dollar-question-with-only-one-right-answer/)
- that the BC Utilities commission warned – when it was finally put to a minimal review by the NDP – was unlikely to be on time or on budget. ( also linked to in this post https://lailayuile.com/2017/11/13/the-billion-dollar-question-with-only-one-right-answer/)
- that has been plagued with geotechnical issues on the left ( north) bank since day 1, and not surprisingly, now the right ( south) bank has stability issues for the foundations of the very heart of the mechanisms that operate the dam.. and the dam itself… and they have no idea how to fix, or how much it will cost.
So what does the current government do?
Appoint a special advisor to oversee the project and give the government independent advice.
And who do they appoint? Peter Milburn. Yes, THAT Peter Milburn.
Ok then. Good luck with that. I’m sure he will come up with a miracle solution for building a dam in mud banks.
Not surprisingly, I’m feeling a bit of deja vu as I sit here and write, because it was just months ago the final report from the inquiry into the Muskrat Falls dam debacle was issued. And reading it, it’s like having a premonition of the future here in BC with Site C, in fact it is eery how that debacle mirrors site c in every aspect…https://watershedsentinel.ca/articles/muskrat-falls-report-slams-nalcor-ceo-province/
“On March 10, the long-awaited 1,000-plus page final report of the Muskrat Falls inquiry became public, revealing a project so misguided and predetermined that the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador “failed in its duty to ensure that the best interests of the province’s residents were safeguarded.”
The report’s executive summary states the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador did not prove a business case for Muskrat Falls. Instead, the province placed faith in Nalcor Energy, a provincial crown corporation created in 2008, and tasked with developing potential electricity generation at Gull Island and Muskrat Falls, on the Churchill River in Labrador.
Nalcor rammed through the project despite a mandate to “conduct a comprehensive study of all potential long-term electricity supply options in the event that the Lower Churchill project does not proceed.”
In doing so, the corporation exploited the trust given to them, the report said, by “frequently concealing information about the project’s costs, schedule and risks” in order to present the Muskrat Falls project to the province and the public as the lowest-cost option for electricity.
Cost estimates for the project – appraised at $7.4B in 2012, and currently sitting at $12.7B – were “clearly influenced by optimism bias, strategic misrepresentation, and political bias.”
The project now accounts for roughly a third of Newfoundland and Labrador’s debt.
“The decisions Nalcor made to reduce the cost estimate must be seen as part of a pattern of questionable decisions that systematically tended to overstate the Project benefits, understate its cost and disregard alternatives,” the report reads.
Deciding what option would result in the least expensive power for consumers would normally fall on the Public Utilities Board, Newfoundland and Labrador’s utility regulator. But because the Lower Churchill Project had been exempted from this oversight by an Order in Council in 2000, the choice was left to Nalcor. In arriving at a decision, the report found Nalcor used “questionable justification” in screening out other potential options including importing electricity from Québec, natural gas from the Grand Banks, wind power, smaller hydro sites, and electricity conservation and demand management.
At Nalcor’s helm was then-CEO, Edmund Martin.His zealousness for the Muskrat Falls project “resulted in a combination of unrealistic optimism, a willingness to misrepresent costs, schedule and risk, and an inability to change course when things were going wrong.”
“It is noteworthy that ratepayers on the Island of Newfoundland, who are responsible for repaying the cost of the Project through electricity rates, face the prospect of greatly increased power bills when the Project comes on-line,” the report notes.
Crazy. You could cross out Muskrat Falls in this and replace with Site C, and it’s literally the same story.
I want to make something very clear here.
People have lost their homes via expropriation, generations of history, First Nations have lost territory and cultural sites, and beautiful pristine areas that should have been secured, have been cleared or razed over for this dam. And for what?
These issues were all known, and yet just like Muskrat Falls, two difference governments and different Hydro company leaders have continued down the same disastrous path. And it isn’t just a societal and human disaster, its a fiscal nightmare with an unknown price tag.
And to see the BC Liberals try and claim moral high ground now that they handed this project over on time and on budget? No, I don’t think so. You approved and applauded a project built in unstable terrain, with no business case, that your government previously exempted from review by the regulator, and said nothing when your leader vowed to get it done while at a funeral. Sit down and be quiet. ( and seriously, y’all have no credibility on any other issue either)
But our current government, as hard as they all try now to distance themselves , actually once fought on the same side as us, with us, to stop the dam…for all the same reasons we warned them about that are unfolding now.
They worked side by side many of the Peace Valley residents and activists who tried to stop this. They brought up our stories and photos in the legislature to question the former government. They knew all this info. So they do own this now. There can be no distancing or pointing fingers at anyone but themselves. They had the chance to stop it, and CHOSE to continue.
I don’t see how they can, in good conscience, continue on knowing there is no fix, no cost and clearly no trust in how things continue to be pushed along on site. I don’t put any credence in anything Peter Milburn will say. He was on team Christy for gawds sake!
For once and for all, it’s time to stop this dam mess.
Come back MONDAY August 10th, for a post on the situation with the Old Fort Slide, just downstream from Site C. No… that hasn’t been resolved yet either and residents still aren’t getting answers to their questions.
( a complete and updated directory of all past Site C and Old Fort slide posts, by year and headline, can be found here: https://lailayuile.com/the-case-to-stop-site-c-construction-links-news/)
Westcoast Views with Laila Yuile 
The ONLY reason that Site c was continued is John Horgan’s complicity in enduring that BCNDP “James Gang” inner circle lobbyists and carpetbaggers are able to fill their pockets. This project can NEVER pay for itself much less make money. The only way to stop the losses on this Indigenous Rights denying, Environment Destroying economic boondoggle is to STOP NOW. The first day it is shut down is the first saving from this project. Throwing literally billions more at a failed project because “it is beyond “no return” is like selling Twoonies for a quarter each and projecting a profit. I hope we have enough guts to throw these fraudsters out as soon as possible.
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I doubt Horgan will walk this back. He’s smart enough to see where this is headed and I suspect he, and others in caucus ( especially cheerleader Mungall who expressed full confidence in Hydro repeatedly and with great gusto) are worried as heck right now.
There is no such thing as too late to pull back and do the right things particularly with this pandemic and what it has revealed in terms of the need for local food security in every area of the province. Last report, only 23% of people on site were local workers. I know the ndp wont want to stop jobs, but you have to put the fiscal and social priority on British Columbias future, not those individuals..( most of whom could be kept working on remediation)
The camp could be repurposed as a regional addictions and mental health facility desperately needed.
There are a host of other projects needed in the area and we know for certain LNg Canada is using gas turbines now, since the feds gave them the funds to purchase them.
I’d say its the perfect time to stop site c, switch gears, and create something positive out of a negative there.
If you are reading John, you know where this is headed. They can find a way to do this…but how long and at what cost? And what risk? This portion of the valley isnt stable anywhere. First it was the left bank. Then a big slide at Old Fort. Then south bank instability under key mechanisms and the earth fill dam itself. In quake zone. Then the second Old Fort slide.
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Constructability review… says it all doesn’t it? Maybe I’m wrong, but it sounds like something you do before you start, or continue, constructing.
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I have a lot of respect for the field of civil engineering. But what I don’t have respect for is the inability to recognize when enough is enough.
Engineering isnt without risk and failures, which usually end up being so catastrophic they become memorable teaching memories like the collapse of the old Taylor bridge up there.
I see they are still spilling up at WAC. Hope those rip rap repairs worked well….
https://www.castanet.net/news/Business/307074/Spilling-continues-at-W-A-C-Bennett-and-Peace-Canyon-dams
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Thank you for your report, Laila Yuile.
Site-C Dam was never going to proceed as planned: the BC Liberal government of the day fudged the engineering and the budgeting; it seemed plain that then-Premier Christy Clark who’d disappointed voters across the spectrum with her generally light grasp of policy, increasing resort to hyper-partisanship, and estrangement from—while delegating political machinations to—the shadiest faction of caucus, rather needed the dubious project as a sort of election campaign stage-prop (easily the most expensive in BC history) atop of which she’d spend an unusual amount of time stumping, a measure of her party’s slipping popularity in the populous, vote-rich ridings on the West Coast, far from the project’s location in the opposite corner of our sprawling province—indeed, on the Great Plains side of the Continental Divide in the remote northeast.
The government didn’t strongly deny the project was being rushed to get construction past the point at which it’d be impolitic to stop—that is, Christy hoped, too late to turn back in time for the 2017 election campaign when the very necessity of Site-C would be one of the main contentions between government and the NDP opposition. But, despite the dam’s huge public expense issue, one that might have dominated electoral contests in other provinces, nothing is quite that simple or clear-cut in BC, especially after political crises of the BC Liberals’ own laying had hatched and pecked the party’s disgraced former leader’s political career to death, and cabinet paraded breaches of public trust with increasing blatancy —the prancing majorette almost gleefully while her party dragged rattling, chained coffers stuffed with perfidies suspected and, as yet, unknown, like Jacob Marley’s ghost.
Thus, in spite of Site-C’s eye-popping cost-projections (since exceeded, as the opposition then warned), it appeared somewhat dwarfed by the sheer massiveness of other suspected BC Liberal breaches of trust like at BC Hydro, ICBC, the BC Gaming Commission, BC Ferries and, of course, the lawcourt-proved corruption in the BC Liberals’ crooked sale of BC Rail. So a tired, 16 year-old regime convicted of corruption, busted at lying (the HST debacle) and led by a bubbly showgirl but controlled by a highly suspect cabal staggered toward what should normally have been a slam-dunk defeat—in any other jurisdiction than BC, that is, where nothing is that simple, not even all that damning infamy.
Polarization has gripped BC since before the First World War, and the political baggage train has been pulled by both, and at turns, so-called ‘free-enterprise’ and socialist parties, but no coalition of the former had tried to sabotage the public apparatus by stealth like the BC Liberals, and no coalition of durable support had been cultivated by the NDP whose trade union traditionalists bridled at moderation, leaving a middle pitch open for the reputed liberal-conservative coalition to attract softish support from an electoral sector of the most mediocre political sophistication, and for whom only the most egregious government could disaffect. Yet the NDP had rarely been able to exploit its rivals’ perfidy: Mike Harcourt was a good politician and policy-maker, yet it took a clown like Socred premier Bill Vander Zalm to leverage an NDP victory. The same could be said about Christy Clark, a clownish incompetent in her own right, but her NDP contender, Adrian Dix, a good and capable man (as his ministry during our current healthcare crisis proves) failed to win an election which should have been a cake-walk before absorbing a bitter lesson that voters have never fully trusted the NDP to be pragmatic and prudent: Dix’s highly idealistic “positive politics” campaign forbidding ‘negative’ criticism of the most criticism-worthy opponent imaginable only proved the suspicion and defaulted the win to a one-note-LNG bubble-head whom voters granted a shot at leading a mandate she’d won on her own (upon the notion that she’d been somewhat cowed by Gordon Campbellites during her tepid caretaker premiership). I’ve often wondered of John Horgan’s decision to continue with Site-C was in part meant to assuage the idealist charge and look pragmatic in a nonpartisan way (but I still think it was mostly expedience).
The right has its baggage of cynical, crony-favouritism, the left its own ball and chain of zealous idealism. Yet the right’s fabulated wariness of the NDP has prevented schisms sometimes quite glaring, while the left’s often well-warranted condemnation of the right has allowed schisms to hinder its chances, the most important in recent times—and with respect Site-C, specifically—is the hiving-off of support to the Greens, frustrations over NDP impotence (and Dix’s foolishly idealistic campaign strategy) allowing the reputed environmentalist party to win a beachhead in the Assembly to oppose Christy’s sole, self-won majority. Manifest was the fact that the 2017 election won the BC Liberals more seats than the NDP, but because the Greens continued to build on their initial success by winning two more seats (totalling three), Christy was denied another majority and soon lost confidence in her cabinet by the combined Green-Dipper parliamentary vote—and, finally after 16 years of perfidy suspected but yet to be indicted, BC’s worst government was terminate. But just barely. That’s the thing.
In my view, the whole conundrum of the NDP campaigning to stop Site-C but then blessing it with continued construction after becoming government, and the Greens’ apparent acquiescence as parliamentary ally despite their own, more vehement opposition to the project on environmental grounds cannot be unravelled without appreciating the context in which the left-right dichotomy has existed for so long, firstly, and, secondly, short of being fully apprised of the BC Liberals’ perfidious bequeathment, surely forensically armoured to protect the guilty, the context also includes how precarious the current Green-Dipper parliamentary alliance has been—such that, probably as the neo-right had intended, it would have been very difficult to reverse even for a solid majority, much less a very, very thin minority.
It might be that the thoughtful, prudent (except for energy development policies inherited or concocted) NDP government is only so popular in peculiar or anomalous circumstance, but if we want to chop the Gordian Knot, end the tired old left-right dichotomy as we should, and move to the new normal that forces itself upon us, we’ll probably have to forgive the Greens and NDP for Site-C—at least to the extent they (presuming they’ll continue to need each other) can do better. Site-C has the distinction of always having been ready to decommission, the question being how and when—of politics, naturally.
An important point is that rumblings of an early election indicate opportunities for both politicians and voters to revisit Site-C (along with fish-farms, Aboriginal rights, LNG and a raft of other issues best tackled by a majority government). Site-C was never a done deal, but if we want to take this opportunity to create a new normal fairly and cleanly, we have to make it so.
In my view, an early election affords us that. Most importantly, the BC Liberals must never be allowed to govern again and we’ll need both NDP and Greens to make sure they don’t.
Thnx, again, for keeping this issue warm whilst most of us have been trying to take a break (I’ll bet, just when we thought the defeat of TRump would afford a bit of respite, a snap election might be called —and we can’t know if it’ll be federal or provincial!)
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” An important point is that rumblings of an early election indicate opportunities for both politicians and voters to revisit Site-C (along with fish-farms, Aboriginal rights, LNG and a raft of other issues best tackled by a majority government). Site-C was never a done deal, but if we want to take this opportunity to create a new normal fairly and cleanly, we have to make it so.
In my view, an early election affords us that. Most importantly, the BC Liberals must never be allowed to govern again and we’ll need both NDP and Greens to make sure they don’t.
Thnx, again, for keeping this issue warm whilst most of us have been trying to take a break (I’ll bet, just when we thought the defeat of TRump would afford a bit of respite, a snap election might be called —and we can’t know if it’ll be federal or provincial!) ”
Great comment, this part in particular.
I haven’t been actively blogging for a long time, if you see the rarity of my posts…🤣 the only reason I blogged this is because it’s so incredibly important. I have one more to come Monday on the Old Fort slide and then back to the harvesting and prepping for winter from the pandemic garden 🙂
I had an unexpected and unplanned for double surgery 5 weeks ago so have been in between the garden and patio during recovery. Only site c could move me beyond the deck nor garden..🤣
It is important tho, that we not ignore the bad policy and decisions even while being grateful to have this crew in office over the Libs. Ugh. Cant even imagine!!!
We would never have been silent over a blank cheque being written by the Libs. I have dozens on stories on their antics if not hundreds. So let’s not accept a lesser standard on a multi billion dollar project that right now, is proceeding with a blank cheque. If We invest more into this with no reassurance of how much it’s going to cost or if it is even ultimately doable ( not sure anyone would want to sign off on this with a community so close downstream), we are all bigger fools than anyone anticipated.
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Also posting this. Amazing how much I have missed. This is the oversight board Horgan appointed that he is so disappointed in as per an interview he did on CBC this morning:
” Curious about why the NDP government would create a brand new “project assurance board” — instead of reinstating the oversight role of the B.C. Utilities Commission after the BC Liberals sent it packing — The Narwhal subsequently asked for a list of board members and if the board’s findings would be public.
In April, we were told by the B.C. energy ministry that a “broad search” was underway to find “highly-qualified, independent [our emphasis] external advisors with expertise in engineering, construction and management of large, complex infrastructure projects.”
It was taking some time, the energy ministry said in an e-mailed statement, because it was difficult to find “the kind of specialized skills, experience and independence from BC Hydro that we are looking for in the independent advisors.”
But neither the list of non-BC Hydro board members nor the board’s findings were ever disclosed.
Court documents reveal details about secretive board
That’s perhaps not surprising, given that international hydro dam construction expert Harvey Elwin recently testified he has never encountered the extent of secrecy surrounding the Site C project in five decades of working on projects around the world, including China’s Three Gorges dam.
Elwin testified for an ongoing First Nations court case against the Site C dam, now a $10.7 billion project.
The legal case seeks to halt work on the Peace River project, pending a full civil trial to determine if the dam violates treaty rights.
Among thousands of pages of court documents, several reveal details about the elusive Site C project assurance board, which has been meeting since January.
In keeping with Elwin’s expert witness testimony, an agenda from a January board meeting has this note at the bottom of the page: “Please ensure to destroy or delete all materials following conclusion of meeting.”
Hmm. That’s interesting…
Thank goodness for Sarah Cox and The Narwhal.
https://thenarwhal.ca/court-documents-offer-revealing-glimpse-of-secretive-site-c-dam-oversight-board/
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The fact that “oversight” was required in the first place indicates that project management was considered suspect. Why are those managers still employed?
Either the project itself is untenable, or management is incompetent.
Sending in revolving babysitters is not cutting it.
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I think its both Lew. Hearing from lots of guys on site today since this is circulating so much up there right now. “Jokers” is a term being used in reference to project managers and hydro. You can compensate for earth movement in a lot of things but this is uncharted territory in design on this terrain here.
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Now that I am officially an old guy….having retired… I have tried my best to ignore the blatant stupidity the BC Liberals and now the coalition NDP government continue to demonstrate. The site C debacle reminds me of a gentler time. As a young twenty something young man, I recall viewing the film “China Syndrome”, a fictional account of a whistleblower whose only sin was to expose the abuses of his industry.
Jane Fonda, acting as a reporter, invested herself in the plot at some risk to herself and her journalistic reputation of the day.
The fictional account was built around a nuclear reactor’s sub standard construction quality being responsible for a cataclysmic nuclear disaster.
Here we are today…. faced with a very similar concern…. unstable geotechnical construction issues, coupled with massive cost overruns and a dubious ongoing need for additional electrical generating capacity,
Laila, you are my Jane Fonda…… glad you are back in the fight!
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Thank you for the kind words and long time support and encouragement 🙏
I’m glad to hear you are retired now, I was actually wondering how you fared during all this covid business, I’m sure your family must be thrilled you are done!
I’m not “back” though, this blog and the one I will be posting tomorrow are a rarity and important for the record because sadly our new government is going to try and let this blow over quickly. Sadly their own supporters who were once beside us fighting for the same reason, are also remaining silent…the curse of partisanship.
We planted a huge pandemic garden and I feel like a farmer most days there is so much harvest coming now….barely time to shower let alone blog!
Be well. You are one of the few who know the full extent of how power is used to detriment to oppose those who dare speak out.
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First i must thank you for your continued investigation of site C, a boondoggle if there ever was one.
The NDP remember nothing and they have learned nothing from the FastFerry debacle some twenty rears ago and left them nineteen years in the political wilderness.
The Fast Ferries were inspired by the Liberals for Iona island to Gabriola island Ferry route, but by the time Harcourt’s NDP dealt with it, the idea was scuttled but not the ferries. FastFerries were a Liberal plan, which the NDP did not have the Wit to stop when there was no need for them.
Site C is exactly the same, as power needs have dramatically changes since the plan was first hatched and like FastFerries, Site C should have been halted.
The Broadway subway is another such project with the Arbutus terminus for the subway was based on surface operating trams in the mid 1990’s. There is no need for a subway, there is no ridership for a subway, there is no real business case for a subway, yet the NDP have let TransLink and regional mayors dictate $3 billion for a 5.8 km subway that will not take cars of the street nor reduce congestion, only drive up transit fares, taxes, etc. A debacle in the making.
Horgan has been more of a disappointment, he is a photo-op Premier just like our last photo-op Premier.
Post Covid, is going to be a new normal, high taxes, and precious little social spending and if Horgan (or the puppet master Geoff Meggs) were smart they would mothball Site C, the SkyTrain expansion (as well as reform TransLink by reducing the layers upon layers of six figured salaried bureaucrats running it) and a score of other expensive, projects (one exception is the Patullo Bridge) and plan for a new future.
The NDP can’t, simply because they cannot admit to mistakes or needed change. They have become political dinosaurs, stuck in a tarpit, awaiting their doom.
It is a mess, made all the worse by political corruption and ineptitude and it looks like Horgan may snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.
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No thanks please,even not writing regularly, I am seeing site c through to whatever end. And its reprehensible now to see Ralston try to minimize and deflect blame when the record shows they were meeting with FN prior to the BCUC hearings.
They would be prudent to cancel the above mentioned projects right now. It makes no sense in the current and foreseeable future. I see a big recession coming.
Also, new post on the main page, on Old Fort.
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New today from Ben Parfitt and terribly relevant not only to this situation at Site C, but also to my new post of the lack of progress and transparency for the residents still dealing with the Old Fort slide.
https://www.corporatemapping.ca/big-fracking-mess/
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Hi Laila hope your summer was great for you and family. Site C is everything bad as you have stated now and past and now the worst scenario is upon it and us the taxpayer. Horgan and his people know it, the sheep Green Party leaders know it, and everyone else knows it. It even got attention by the news down toeven the most sterilized media, and the most unlikely political commentators and journalists to comment such as from usual dumbed down mainstream press gallery types and radio personalities of the Global type, who usually don,t talk much about these things because these massive failures that affect us in so many awful and possible deadly ways, just isn’t worthy of segments for some reason. What disgust.
If Horgan does not get it, which i know he doe, but is to afraid to pull the plug and admit it was a failure, then him and his people are the most arrogant high and mighty brain dead reckless politicians the province has ever seen. The unions and temporary workforce i imagine don’t care. The paycheques are good and the union dues build the union kitty and pension funds. Guess i can’t blame them. It’s work and bread and butter. Have too turn a blind eye. Money does talk over insanity madness and danger. And of course Hydro and the special interests will stay for the ride on the gravy train until the wreck and keep lying to the general public about how it’s all under control.
If the dam has a catastrophic failure and kills people because of the absolute stupidity of failing to admit failure, then that would be criminal, kinda like manslaughter, especially if they know this situation, and Horgan will be the head of it all. What stupidity on a grand scale. The most we would get if were lucky is a public inquiry after disaster with of course. Guess. No consequences for the responsible just like the money laundering inquiry will be. the system was rigged to protect the big wigs long ago.
Also imagine to let the billions keep flowing into the hole in this time of dire times for people, the medical system, small business and money needed elsewhere. Then the eathquakes and further aqaufer poisoning because of fracking for the future failed LNG prospect gets thrown in. No end to politicians being stupid reckless idiots. It seems to be the normal way with the sub quality of so many politicians we get these days. Many say they get into politics to do right for public service. Some do, But too many don’t. Anyways i feel we are going to pay big time for this job creation money pit and not for anything good.
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Hi Kennylad,
My summer was incredible, thank you. Built and grew a pandemic garden.Am part of a group helping people learn to grow their own food and how to garden. It’s amazing to see how many are helping others in food sustainability efforts on a local scale. Its been noticeable how many people are without adequate food even locally and I worry when CERB is discontinued, because the new benefits still leave huge gaps. Anyone who was laid off before March 15th due to a covid lack of work, was not transferred over to Cerb, even if it was 2 days prior… and they had to use those EI benefits first. Now those people are at the end of their benefits and Cerb, many don’t have work back yet to go to, and no EI hours left to use. Will they be eligible for the new benefit? Doesn’t sound like it.
Parents who don’t want to send their kids to school will no longer be eligible for benefits, as schools are open so that’s a choice. Not much of a choice if you ask me….( this is why they are opening schools, if they are open and you choose to stay home and educate, you lose your benefits)
Anyways.
Lots of small business supporting others locally but seeing businesses close now. And of course,made the most of this beautiful area we call home 🙂 It was definitely a low key summer close to home with no vacation.
I also was lucky to get in for urgent surgery for two procedures, had my gallbladder removed and a hernia mesh repair done all at once just in case covid closes OR’s this fall ( crossing fingers it doesn’t)
I hope yours was good too and that you got out on some back roads or camping or whatever makes you happy 🙂
Yeah this site c just needs to be shut down. Asking Milburn to take a look is like asking Clark if we should keep building…🤣
Its kinda like a bad reno, when you discover the house has a bigger issue than you thought and is better off being torn down than trying to fix.
Stop the dam. Remediate the site. Rebuild the Taylour bridge for ongoing work. Camp could be repurchased as housing or a northern addiction treatment centre. We put forth those ideas in a long list in 2016 on twitter, ndp mlas said at the time they loved them. Those ideas still have merit but I doubt anyone is bold enough to act.
Now, back to trying to explain to my kids why, after months of distancing and masks in stores, banks, public transit, its suddenly ok to not have to distance or wear masks in school cohorts of 60 to 120, with kids whose classmates have parents who go bsck and forth to work camps in Alberta…
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