BC Hydro reports small employment increase at Site C in April

FORT ST. JOHN, B.C. — BC Hydro has reported another slight uptick in employment at Site C.

According to the utility’s latest employment report, 2,808 people worked at Site C during April, seven more people than in March.

The number of Peace region residents working at the site stayed steady at 411.

2,092 primary B.C. residents worked at the site in April, accounting for 75 per cent of the workforce. That’s a slight decline from the 2,130 primary BC residents reported in March.

The number of apprentices and workers who voluntarily declared themselves as Indigenous rose, meanwhile, to 175 apprentices and 116 Indigenous workers.

272 women worked at Site C in April, down from 312 in March.

As major milestones are completed, BC Hydro expects total employment to continue to decrease through 2024 until the project is completed in 2025.

In presentations to residents in Fort St. John and Hudson’s Hope earlier this month, the utility revealed that filling for the Site C reservoir is set to begin late in the summer and last all throughout the fall.

Once finished, the reservoir will be roughly three times as wide as the Peace River and 52 metres deep near the dam, with a depth of 18 metres in shallower areas near Hudson’s Hope.