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Don Swoboda: Make the responsible choice: Build the Site C dam

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Last November, I joined a group of retired B.C. Hydro employees to co-sign a formal letter of endorsement to build the Site C project on the Peace River.

We submitted this letter to the Joint Review Panel that had invited public feedback as part of their review of the project.

Last week, that panel presented its findings and recommendations to the federal and provincial governments. Now it’s time for the relevant government ministers to take ownership of the file and make the responsible decision to proceed with construction.

As my former Hydro employees and I submitted, our collective experience included the design, construction, operation and maintenance of the many dams and generating facilities currently in B.C. Hydro’s inventory, including those on the Peace and Columbia rivers that provide the majority of the province’s electricity.

Our submission focused on the generational responsibility to serve others and to think and plan ahead. It was also a reminder that B.C. Hydro’s system needs to be expanded where and when required to meet the needs of our population and economy.

There are, of course, alternatives to Site C. The province could choose less-reliable sources of electricity, like wind, solar and run-of-river hydro, which provide only intermittent electricity.

Or the province could choose to rely on purchases from the market, which leave us vulnerable to supply and price risks.

Alternatively, customers might be encouraged to conserve more by pricing electricity even higher than current rates, but that might also drive businesses out of the province as well as impose economic hardship on lower-income families.

We could even choose to do nothing and once again pass on this responsibility to others, hoping for the best.

Unfortunately, there is nothing intermittent about the growing demand for electricity in our homes, communities and businesses, let alone the power-hungry electronic devices that constantly attract our attention and often overwhelm our attempts to conserve.

There is also nothing comforting about having the ability, within B.C., of meeting our citizens’ energy needs from clean, renewable electricity, but looking elsewhere instead.

The other obvious benefits of Site C are well documented in B.C. Hydro’s extensive body of research that was under the panel’s review: job and wealth creation, benefits for communities, lower greenhouse gas emissions and the longevity of the clean and renewable source of electricity that Site C would supply.

Furthermore, we know that previous hydroelectric projects have helped build a skilled labour force that has and continues to serve the people and province of B.C.

Developing Site C would contribute to that strong economic legacy and help build the province’s critical human capital.

We live in a different world from when the Peace and Columbia systems were first built and we must respect today’s stronger regulatory and environmental standards.

As we wrote last November, many of us former Hydro employees worked and lived in B.C. communities that have been affected by B.C. Hydro’s construction activities and operations.

We built and expanded our system and often encroached on the lives and businesses of local residents.

It is recognized that building Site C would also have positive and negative impacts on communities, aboriginal groups and the environment in the Peace region.

The balance of those impacts, however, is overwhelmingly favourable to British Columbians, particularly in the long term.

The only responsible next step for government decision makers is to choose to build Site C.

Don Swoboda is a professional engineer and former B.C. Hydro senior vice-president who worked for the company between 1958 and 1998, including as Peace River area superintendent.

 

The editorial pages editor is Gordon Clark, who can be reached at gclark@theprovince.com. Letters to the editor can be sent to provletters@theprovince.com.



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