BC NDP sends Site C to BC Utilities Commission for review

VICTORIA (NEWS 1130) — The new BC government is asking the BC Utilities Commission (BCUC) to review the Site C project.

Sending the $8.8-billion project to the province’s independent regulatory agency was one of the party’s key promises during the provincial election campaign.

 

 

Construction will continue but no new contracts will be awarded

In a news conference Wednesday afternoon, Energy, Mines and Petroleum Resources Minister Michelle Mungall says work underway since July 2015 is continuing, but no new contracts are being awarded.

There’s two-thousand, 200 people on site working. To immediately stop the project would have impacts on them. They may be telling us to move ahead with Site C. They may be telling us to stop Site C.”

Landowners in the area will not be forced out

Mungall says landowners in the area are no longer in danger of being evicted… because plans to flood farmland along the Peace River are also on hold.

“We can ensure that the Boon family does get to remain in their home –especially over this review period.”

What is the BCUC being asked to do?

The purpose of the review is to figure out if BC really needs this project.

The province has asked the BCUC to confirm if BC Hydro can complete the project by 2024, and to to look at the impacts of suspending or cancelling the project.

The review will begin in one week with an initial report due back in six weeks.

A final report is due November 1.

The BC Liberals question the motive behind the decision

The opposition had said putting the Site C project under review would cause extensive delays.

Mike Bernier, Liberal MLA for Peace River South is calling the push for review “fake.”

“Is this simply another way of appeasing Andrew Weaver to prop up their partisan alliance?”

Opposition Leader Rich Coleman says the NDP are putting jobs and future growth at risk.

Without Site C, B.C could face an eight per cent capacity deficit and a two per cent energy deficit within 10 years,” he says.

Dan Davies, Liberal MLA for Peace River North, is accusing the NDP of spreading fear to the over 2,000 people who currently work at the site.

“This project has been reviewed, we need the power and playing politics with it is wrong.”

Former BC Hydro CEO Jessica McDonald has also suggested delaying Site C only one year could cost more than 600-million dollars.

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