Remember the “Fast Ferries” fiasco, friends?

That cost $460 million and more than any other issue brought the NDP down in 2001. What wastrels! cried the Campbell opposition. “A disgrace!” “Think of all the social programs that suffered!”

Can you imagine what the business community would have said if it had been 10x that, say, $4.6 Billion?

There would have been cries to send Premier Clark to jail! Maybe bring back capital punishment! I can imagine Phil Hochstein, the ever quotable spokesperson for and president of the Independent Contractors and Businesses Association. Phil can always be counted upon for a spirited speech in favour of capitalism at a hint of the  NDP as a potential government. He would not only be speechless at $4.6 billion, he might well, poor chap, die of apoplexy!

What if the NDP had done 10x10x$460,000,000? Or even worse, say $50 billion and rising? I can’t imagine what poor Phil would do. At the very least he surely would have demanded that all members and suspected members of the NDP – and fellow travelers, of course –  be banished into permanent exile! Are there no stocks in the public square? What’s happened to the prison hulks? Where’s Botany Bay when we really need it?

(Let me say here that I know and like Phil – it’s just that he has become such an eloquent spokesperson for the blessings of capitalism and, dare I say it, a sneering enemy of the left. He’s obviously the industry’s bulls-eye to shoot at if you care at all about the monstrous “rivers policy” of Pinocchio and his pals.)

$50 Billion is a conservative estimate of the amount BC Hydro must pay private power producers (IPPs) for power they cannot use – on a take or pay basis – and must sell at ½ price at best. These sweetheart deals are scarcely with little mom-and pop operations as we’re assured by Pinocchio, but huge out of Province corporations like Ledcor and General Electric; nor are they, as Finance Minister Colin Hansen assures us, harmless little old mills. almost invisible, spinning away, and lighting up all our homes.

These IPP plants, as anyone can see by just going up past Squamish to the Ashlu River, are environmental nightmares; they destroy the fish, thus the ecologies dependent upon the river, and require massive clear cuts to make way for roads and transmission lines.

Many of the larger projects – Bute Inlet, Klinaklini, Upper Pitt, Glacier/Howser – are on hold for indefinite periods because it’s occurred to the companies and the government that the public of BC won’t put up with them, with massive civil disobedience the obvious consequence. Stroll through this website and see Damien Gillis’s filming right around the province and see for yourself what these little Mom and Pop, unobtrusive plants look like when they’re in operation.

The companies and the Campbell government peddled these environmental and fiscal horror stories as “green” projects! In fact, in April 2009, when the NDP put out their platform condemning these projects for what they are, here’s what Phil Hochstein had to say:

“There can be no more damning evidence that the NDP has all but abandoned its green and youth voters in favour of the labour agenda than its opposition to green energy projects.  Heralded by President Obama, and embraced throughout Europe, the development of a renewable energy industry is clearly the social, economic, and environmental opportunity of our generation.  Yet, James and the NDP have come out staunchly in opposition to green energy projects. And why? Because the public unions don’t want any energy, green or otherwise, developed in B.C. unless it is under their control.”

Somehow Phil’s research missed the point that these projects, far from being green, were brown and that the use of that word is just what George Orwell told us would happen in his great book, 1984. It’s “newspeak” on the theory that saying that brown is green often enough the unwary public will accept it.

Free enterprisers like Phil didn’t notice, evidently, that BC Hydro, being forced to buy this “green” power from private power producers, on a “take or pay” basis for power they didn’t need – nor that BC Hydro was forced to buy this private power at double or more what it could sell it for, a sure prescription for bankruptcy.

This isn’t Phil’s fault – I only pick on him because he has so clearly articulated, for the business community, the bullshit the government was peddling.

Folks, it gets worse.

The principal market for this half price sale BC Hydro is forced to put on is California. Remember the beaming Premier looking lovingly into the eyes of Governor Terminator of California, aka Arnold Schwarzenegger, as they pledged their troth? Capitalist eyes wept in happiness at all that ½  price BC electricity heating swimming pools in California.

For this I’m indebted to Jim Quail, Executive Director of the Public Interest Advocacy Centre. Referring to Campbell’s policy he says:

“This strategy has hit a roadblock, created by California’s environmental standards. They classify any run-of-river project rated above 30 Megawatts as non-green. That captures all of the hydroelectricity BC Hydro is buying from IPPs. Spot prices for this stuff are projected in the $35-40 range per MWh over the coming few years, but we will be paying IPPs as much as $120 per MWh. We’ll have to dump the surplus on the spot market for a huge loss. (My emphasis)

Premier Campbell has been lobbying hard to get California to raise its 30 MW limit for premium power, without success so far.Things could get even worse. There is a proposition on the California ballot for November which would suspend that state’s clean energy laws until unemployment drops below 5.5%. That could be several years. If this passes, our surplus IPP power will have no chance of gaining a premium price. There will be no market in California for high-priced ‘clean’ power.”

Even if California changes its mind, BC Hydro is faced with selling power it has been forced to buy at 50 cents on the dollar, tops!
Here’s the score, folks, in the fiscal f#@k-up department: On our left, wearing the pink undies, the NDP gave us Fast Cat ferries that didn’t work, at a loss of $462 million dollars.

On our right, in the blue bloomers, Gordon “Pinocchio” Campbell and his “green power” at $50 Billion, gives us power we can’t use and which must be exported to a market that isn’t there. (Always remembering, of course, that if they don’t go bust first, they might get up to ½ back, except that at  Pinocchio’s insistence BC Hydro continues to enter new contracts!)

Over to you, Phil…

There are rumours abroad in this province that Gordon Pinocchio Campbell is losing interest in private power projects and moving over to Site “C”. The apparent reason is that California refuses to consider the power green or clean – something the Common Sense Canadian has been saying for a long time. Whether this rumour is true or not, nothing is changed with respect those licenses now granted or those approved in principle awaiting the ersatz Environmental Assessment fiasco. What any new government would be obliged to do is open sill the existing contracts to the public – remember, these contracts were forced upon BC Hydro, our company – and if unfair, cancel them.

Carole James said in the last election that she would honour existing contracts and that simply doesn’t make sense. If she were running for mayor of a city on a pledge to clean up the corruptness of its previous leaders, and, upon winning, found that the contracts signed by them were all long-term, sweetheart deals with political pals, would she then honour the contracts? If so, what was the point of electing her?

We hear it said that if those contracts are tampered with, new business wouldn’t come and existing business would flee the province. That’s nonsense. If there are good business opportunities, businesses will come.

I believe that Ms. James and the NDP must put together criteria for examining these deals which would include seeing if the province of BC will benefit. If, as the truth unfolds, we find that these were long-term deals for government’s friends and donors; if we find out that most of the power produced by private power projects must be exported because they can’t make the power when BC Hydro can use it; if we see that the environmental damage is huge and irreparable; if we learn that BC Hydro is hurting badly and will soon be decapitated if it must continue to buy private power power at double what Hydro can sell it for and is thus on a clear path to ruin – under these circumstances the contracts have to be canceled, which can be done by an act of the Legislature. Too bad for the companies but they knew the contracts were theft, and thieves, whether corporate or not, deserve no sympathy.

Site “C” raises new issues. Damien Gillis and I both oppose this development and, no, we’re not against everything. British Columbia, contrary to government lies by Campbell and Colin Hansen, is not a net importer of power. BC Hydro is sometimes but BC Hydro isn’t the only power maker; when you count the others – Fortis, Alcan, and Teck-Cominco – BC is typically a net exporter.

The fact is that no power system can produce all the provincial needs under extreme difficulties. To maintain such a system would be horrendously expensive and wasteful. That’s why Burrard Thermal is needed and, as the BC Utilities Commission noted a year ago, ought to be expanded as our need grows.

But here is the point: Burrard Thermal must only be used when there is a serious shortage, which happens a few days a year – in the dead of winter when are needs are greatest and supply at its lowest.

Burrard Thermal, thanks to the Campbell government, has had a bad press. It’s not a pollution-belching plant at all. It uses natural gas which, after hydro power, is the next best producer.

Look at it this way: when a hospital is suddenly deprived of power, a backup system kicks in to cover off the (usually) short blackout. Some of my neighbours have back-up generators for the black-outs we get when hydro lines are down.

The public of BC have been very badly served by this government which has not been up front and honest about the power challenges in BC but has plainly lied through their teeth.

Site “C” is a debate the public – a well informed public – must have. Can we afford it? Most importantly, who are the target customers?

It’s said that even if it mostly exports power, there’s nothing wrong with that. This raises the critical question: is BC prepared to inflict serious and permanent environmental damage and ruin vital agricultural land in order to export the power produced? What if it’s designated for the Tar Sands and other egregiously bad environmental nightmares?

What Carole James and he NDP must do is come up with a policy and that policy must be to eliminate the secrecy and permit citizens to be heard not after the approval in principle has been given, but before. I realize that consulting the people is a shocking thought but not, I can tell you, to the people! Municipalities must be given back their right to zone power plants by repealing Bill 30. It strikes me as odd that people get to say their piece if the issue is a new building or a shopping centre or even it the proposed development is a store they don’t like, such as Walmart – but have no say when a private power producer wants to bugger up a river and the ecosystem it supports.

Governments generally, but especially this one, are scared of people participation in policy that directly gets in the way of government plans.

The public ate not to be trusted, says Mr Campbell – we know best!

A government that operates secretly and tries to shut out the public is begging for serious civil disobedience.