Evan Saugstad: And, if elected, I promise to add some water to Site C!

FORT ST. JOHN, B.C. — Who would have guessed that BC Premier David Eby would eschew BC-produced clean and green water-generated electricity in favour of buying that @#*^ fossil fuel-generated power from Premier Danielle Smiths’ Alberta?

In a strange twist of circumstances, that is what our Premier has accomplished. With the help of his handpicked BC Hydro Board Chair, Lori Wanamaker, they decided not to start Site C as planned and instead purchased power from Alberta to keep our lights on. Lori was Deputy Minister to the Premier for both David and the former NDP Premier John Horgan.

And, in an even stranger irony, this largess results in the BC taxpayers subsidizing Albertan’s carbon tax rebate as Justin’s carbon tax is collected from the natural gas used to produce electricity for BC. Site C is the third hydroelectric dam on the Peace River located near Fort St John.

For this, we should get a collective thanks from Alberta to our Premier for helping you in your times of an unaffordability crisis.

Let me explain.

Remember last fall when BC was supposed to start filling the Site C reservoir and begin electrical generation before the new year? Just a few days before the diversion tunnels were to begin closing and allow the reservoir to fill, BC Hydro suddenly announced on Nov 14th that they were not ready, still had work to do, and postponed the reservoir filling and any subsequent electoral generation until late 2024.

Shortly after this announcement, I received information from a “little birdie” telling me that the outstanding work was mere hours, or at most, a couple of days away from being completed. Once completed, the dam would have been ready for water, and the first electricity would have been online before the end of the year.

I wonder why it is now scheduled for late 2024, a year later. Some surmised that maybe it was postponed because a black bear or two had dug their dens below the highwater mark and would be rudely awakened from their slumber. Others thought that due to the ongoing drought, there would not be enough water. Just a note: once full, this dam stays at a relatively consistent level and allows all new water to be released at the same rate as it enters.

If you believe either of these to be true, then wonder why not start filling with the spring freshet? When the bears are gone and there is more water as BC Hydro meets its commitments to raise river water levels to better mimic nature downstream of the dams. And bring some of that badly needed clean and green energy online so we can stop buying that carbon tax-laden Alberta fossil-fueled energy and make Danielle keep looking so good?

Wonder no longer. It’s called “bad news” and not a good plan when 2024 is a BC election year.

Works like this.

The BC government carried the construction debt to minimize the impact on electricity prices while the dam was being built. If they hadn’t, the price of electricity would have steadily climbed as the debt accumulated, and without any offsetting electricity sales, rates would have risen substantially.

Accounting principles state that once BC Hydro begins generating electricity from a project and receiving income on the energy generated, the construction cost is transferred from the Province’s balance sheet to that of BC Hydro. BC Hydro must then reflect that new debt and begin collecting via our electricity bills.

Yes, that ever-ballooning cost of +/-$16 billion would be added to the formula, and our electricity rates would increase somewhere between 8 % and 12%.

Makes me wonder if the conversation leading up to this sudden and unanticipated announcement went something like this:

Ring, Ring (an old-fashioned telephone); “David here” as he contemplates his first year at the helm.

Lori: “David, how is it going? Lori over here at Hydro.

David: “Hi Lori, good to hear from you. Are you enjoying your new appointment?

Lori: “Yes, and thanks. I needed the break. I appreciate the opportunity and not having to go through that annoying application process. You know what happens in December when the reservoir is filled and we turn on the first generator at Site C?”

David: “Uhhhh, not something I pay attention to, being way up there in conservative country, but it sounds like great news, a great opportunity to get me in front of the cameras again. I will make a great announcement showing me standing on the top of that dam and saying we no longer need any more of that fossil-fueled energy coming from Alberta and contaminating our clean stuff. You will have to be there.”

Lori: “David, I think you should know that once we turn the generator on, BC’s Site C debt is transferred to BC Hydro.”

David: “That sounds like accounting …. So…. what does that have to do with my wanting more green energy?”

Lori: “$16,000,000,000 of new debt will increase our rates by 8 – 12%, effective shortly thereafter, but we can fudge the numbers a bit and spread some of this out over a couple more years to make it look a bit better.”

David: “Oh, but I promised cheap electricity to our residents. I just gave everyone 100 bucks to keep them happy. They cannot go up. Will make me look bad.”

Lori: “Sorry, that is the way it works unless you can get Mark over at the Utilities Commission to change the rules. And you know what else? Do you know what I learned from working in the Premier’s office? 2024 is an election year, and voters don’t forget sudden and big increases to their electric bills.”

David: “Uhhh, oh …. then just don’t start the generators?”

Lori: “Hard to do that one without raising some suspicions. They are all planned to come on shortly after the reservoir is filled.”

David: “Oh, let me think, let me think …… OK, I got it. Don’t fill the reservoir until after the election, and then you can’t turn the generators on.”

Lori: “But we are ready. If we don’t begin now, we will have to carry another year of costs that we didn’t anticipate.”

David: “Find something that says you’re not ready. And don’t worry about the costs. I can make up another story about those BC Liberals, their mismanagement of Site C and ….”

Lori: “……Ok, boss, I will get right at it.”

Okay, my words, they’re not real, and there’s no way of knowing if this discussion really took place, but why else would BC Hydro postpone the start of Site C, lose a year of income, and incur another year of costs while employees sit around twiddling their thumbs and waiting for David to give the go-ahead to fill the dam?

And why else would our ever-so-green David favour electricity generated from natural gas, not water? Why would he want to increase Canadian’s CO2 production? And why would he rather saddle BC Hydro and the BC taxpayers with more debt and then give our tax dollars as rebates to Albertans?

The corruption of power, more power; that is why? Not the electric kind, but that overwhelming desire for everlasting political power.

I wonder if David knows how to spell h-y-p-o-c-r-i-t-e?

I would put my money on the birdie, who said they were ready, rather than David, who said they were not.

I am waiting to see what my BC Hydro bill looks like when the election is over.