The chickens are, at long last, coming home to roost! The Campbell Government’s Energy Policy, now Christy Clark’s, is being seen for what it is – an egregiously ideological giveaway to large corporations. Even that Liberal suck, the Vancouver Province calls the policy “folly”. Yes, after 8 years of silence, of indifference, the Province in one word describes a policy it has, by its silence condoned for nearly a decade – a policy they and the rest of the media could have likely stopped had they chosen to deal with it. Meanwhile, the Vancouver Sun, having a Fellow of the Fraser Institute, Fazil Milhar as editor of the Editorial Page, has indeed by its silence kept the spotlight off this massive giveaway of our province.

The evil consequences of BC’s current energy policy, drafted in large part by Alcan in its move way from smelting aluminum into a big-time energy producer, are many.

As official spokesman for The Common Sense Canadian, I’ve spoken throughout the province and found one constant obstacle: people find it difficult to believe that any sane government could come up with such a policy. They’re starting to realize that they’re right – no sane government would:

• Forbid BC Hydro from developing any new public power projects (Site C, exempted, is not a “new” project – it’s been on the books for decades)
• Give all development to private companies with secret sweetheart deals
• All but give them licenses to use our rivers (the original price for a private power water license was around $170)
• Force BC Hydro to buy this private power at almost 3 times what they pay for it or some 9-12 more than they can make it themselves, thus placing BC Hydro in a position that if they were in the private sector, they would be headed for bankruptcy.

That’s right folks – these private power projects can’t store much energy, meaning it must be used when it’s created. Because they can’t generate much power when their rivers are low, which they generally are except during the annual spring run-off – when we need their power the least – BC Hydro gets stuck with power it must use or sell at a huge loss.

One cannot blame people for not believing this. It is indeed incomprehensible. But it’s true.

It’s so hard to believe that the NDP in the ’09 election didn’t make this into the big issue of the campaign.

The worm has turned – not implying that the NDP are worms! – and the leading candidates for their leadership have clearly stated that there will be no more of this sweetheart cronyism and that the secret contracts must be opened up to the public’s scrutiny.

You will recall that during the Liberal Party’s leadership process this environment/energy issue wasn’t debated at all. It was if it simply didn’t exist! Assuming that the NDP select either Mr. Farnworth or Mr. Horgan, this issue is automatically in the forefront of the debate and must be dealt with – as long as the NDP keeps its nerve.

On a related matter, John Cummins, leader of the Conservative Party, has long been an ardent foe of the Liberals’ Energy Policy and even if, which I don’t believe, the NDP were to lose their nerve, the Conservatives won’t. With no seats going into the race, and with Mr. Cummins’ reputation for fighting for what he believes in, the Liberals will finally be forced to face the music.

Finally, what will Mr. Campbell do now?

On the Liberal leader election night, Mr. Campbell was said to be in Washington, DC. This is not the time of year he normally takes a vacation there and it would be interesting to know what his itinerary was.

My guess is that some plumy directorships will be coming his way from grateful titans of industry.

As Bridge players say, may I review the bidding?

Gordon Campbell has gone into retirement but anyone who thinks he won’t be rewarded by industry for all his hard work for them ought to be showing some interest in Florida swamp lands.

The part of Campbell’s tenure that most concerns me is his record on Independent Power Projects (IPPs), where he employed the well known theory that if the lie is big enough and you let it run for enough time, people will believe it.

On the IPP issue Campbell not only used the “Big Lie” technique, he was much aided by a tame if not captive media. It’s important to note this, for one can fool the public either by dealing with the issues thoroughly or not at all. The BC mainstream media has chosen the latter method and it’s worked magnificently for Campbell.

 There is a new factor which I’ve dealt with in the past but it’s come to the fore forcefully thanks to economist Erik Andersen.

 First let’s examine what we know about IPPs.

• They create environmental nightmares      
• They have sweetheart deals with BC Hydro which has been mandated by the government to give them
• Most IPP power comes at a time BC Hydro doesn’t need the power
• Even though it doesn’t need the power, under the “take or pay” clause BC Hydro must take it
• BC Hydro, having been forced to take IPP power has two choices – export it at less than half of what it was forced to pay for it or use it at 12 times what it can create its own power for.

I can’t believe this situation which rivals and perhaps exceeds the crooked mayor who gives long term sweetheart deals to his brother-in-law.

What Campbell has done is to bury these facts from the public by stating the egregious falsehood that BC needs private power because it must import power. This scares people who fear that without IPPs we will literally be in the dark. The crucial point is that if BC was short of energy, the last place they could get it would be IPPs which produce the bulk of their power during the annual spring run-off.

A new wrinkle has been added: BC Hydro is seeking permission from the BC Utilities Commission for massive rate increases, ostensibly for renovations and stuff like that.

In their proposals and indeed in their other financial statements you see the Sherlock Holmes famous dog barking scenario where the whole point of the case was that the dog didn’t bark. So it is with these sweetheart deals. For what’s missing from this whole mess is a financial statement from BC Hydro that shows the ever increasing liabilities of some $50 BILLION to these IPPs which will cost it well in excess of a billion a year for up to 40 years! We’re talking about in excess of $1 billion a year and growing! . As the late American senator Everett Dirksen once said “A billion here, a billion there, pretty soon it adds up to real money.”

All of these deals have a COLA clause to cover any inflation that might occur!

Pretty neat, huh! How would you like a deal like this where, no matter what you do, you can’t go broke?

There is no doubt that under these circumstances if BC Hydro were in the private sector it would be seeking bankruptcy protection. The only reason BC Hydro is not bankrupt is that it has a steady flow of income which can be raised if necessary – you and me and BC industry who must pay more and more to cover BC Hydro’s commitments and shortfalls.

Why aren’t we being told by the government about this mess – about how we are sacrificing our environment so that companies like General Electric can literally steal our power?

In fact it’ worse than that for governments are actually granting money to these huge wealthy companies.

We’ve been taken for fools by the Campbell government and the pliant media. Gordon Campbell gets praise whereas he should get his second sojourn in the slammer.

The dog hasn’t barked and the biggest giveaway BC has ever seen goes unexplained by the government and unnoticed by the media.

Rumors are flying as Christy Clark hits the premier’s office running, including an election for next September. This will happen if the premier decides that as time goes on her chances of winning will not likely improve.

The NDP leader will not have had much time to present his platform.

The NDP may emerge from their leadership convention snapping at each other – which is normal for them.

Premier Clark may have won the HST debate.

After some time in the Legislature, the new Liberal government, whose best argument is that Campbell has left, may present a new and better image even though they all participated in supporting him.

The downers are significant, one of which could be fatal – the combination of a strong NDP leader and a threat to the right wing by a John Cummins-led Conservative Party.

There is, of course, a huge issue Premier Clark wants to avoid until she has a mandate…it’s called BC Hydro.

Hydro, were it in the private sector, would now be heading for bankruptcy protection. And this leads to another rumor this time from Cope 378 (the union representing many BC Hydro workers) which raises the specter of BC Hydro being split in three and some if not all of the pieces being sold privately. An interesting fact is that when Hydro puts its case to what’s left of the BC Utilities Commission they conveniently overlook the some $50 BILLION in commitments to private power companies.

This raises the name Rich Coleman who is the new Minister of Energy and has made noises about holding Hydro’s feet to fire re: their proposed significant raise in electricity charges. Minister Coleman is seen as a tough, hard-nosed guy whose appointment is supposed to have telegraphed a message to a population not too keen about an increase in rates that BC Hydro will have to deal with.

I smell a rat – no offense Mr. Coleman.

If the minister truly wants the public t know about their energy company he will announce that he will release the cozy contracts virtually given to private companies and will do so immediately. He would restore zoning rights to local governments. He would make it clear that as government policy Independent Power Producers (IPPs) would receive no licenses and no environmental permits until the whole energy plan is out in the open. He would also restore independence to the BC Utilities Commission.

I don’t believe these things will happen because Premier Clark does not want the Energy policy and the ruinous, sweetheart contracts to be an election issue. My bet is that Coleman will mount some sort of inquiry which delays public debate until the election is, safely he hopes, behind him. Coleman will bob and weave and avoid. A combative man by nature – so I’m told – Coleman will bluster, equivocate, play the role of the Ink Fish and generally confuse the voting public.

This technique will be met with opposition from the Common Sense Canadian, opposition which will take Damien and me around the province. After recent events on Vancouver Island in Port Alberni and Tofino a couple of weeks ago, will be in Williams Lake and Quesnel this coming weekend, followed by the Okanagan the week after. By the time we’re finished we’ll have visited every region of the province carrying the message of the financial horror the government has visited on BC Hydro and showing the calamitous environmental damage this policy causes.

We will support politicians who stand for saving BC Hydro and our environment and oppose those who don’t. No more complicated than that.

But there is more to it than just that. We cannot with our limited resources fight all the battles under the environment ‘brolly but we stand with those who fight fish farms, battle to keep the ALR intact and stand by opposition to shipping Oil Sands crud by pipeline and tanker through BC and down its coast.

Does this mean we’re anti-business? An emphatic no! We’re against bad business.

Fish farms can stay if they’re in closed-containment. If the fish farmers say they can’t handle that we say this means you need BC to subsidize you by allowing you to ravage the environment and our wild fish. In effect, the damage that happens to our wild salmon becomes a dividend in the hands of foreign companies.

With pipelines one must remember that there are no risks involved but certainties waiting to happen. The consequences will be – not might be – horrific damage to our precious environment.

We stand shoulder with those who fight to preserve farmland. Quite apart from all other valid arguments, why would we, given what we see happening around the world, jeopardize our food supply?

Neither Damien or I support any political party and certainly not socialists. I ran and won against the NDP twice and if the circumstances were the same today as they were in 1975 and I was that young again, I’d do it all over again.

BUT…the issues we at the Common Sense Canadian are concerned with are not about left and right but right and wrong.

As we go into the campaign flat out, I hope you will support us as we battle to save our power company and our environment.