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.
BC Hydro projected in 2000 that by 2009 we would require over 65,000 GWh or electricity for our domestic (BC) needs. By 2010, we used just over 50,000. When the company’s past predictions have been off by over 30%, can you really trust their current projections of an increase in demand by 33%?! There is one exception to this point – raised here by motorcycleguy – and that is the diversion of our domestic electrical production to extractive industries, particularly natural gas fracking. That is a very important point and thank you for the passage motorcycleguy.
regarding BC Hydro projections
While investigating the good points raised by Eric Hawthorne, I came across and interesting paragraph in the BC Hydro Electric Load Forecast 2010/11 to 2030/31:
“As shown in table 8.1, sales to the oil and gas sector is expected grow to be about
20 percent of total industrial sector load over the next 10 years. It is anticipated that
this growth will be driven by unconventional gas operations, which are rapidly
developing in North Eastern B.C. Producers spent roughly $2 billion dollars in land
sales in 2008 for the purpose of exploratory drilling. Gas producers are successfully
advancing with horizontal drilling techniques and multistage fracturing; this is helping
to reduce costs.”
Fracking/non-conventional gas production is rapidly becoming an issue due to water use/contamination problems…and maybe even more of an issue once the electricity requirements are publicized…this only adds to the water use. The industry may not grow as predicted with subsequent loss of this electricity market.
I could not find the projections for export but wonder if these are included in the increased projections.
Rafe I agree with you on many of these points, but I would like to know your position on how BC Hydro should meet future electricity demand. I am not trying to be oppositional. I am an engineer and want to know the plausible and politically and environmentally acceptable solution.
BC Hydro forecasts a 33% increase in electricity demand 20 years from now compared to today.
If IPPs on wild rivers are out of bounds, as they should be, and increased fossil fuel generation is definitely out of bounds, how should Hydro meet the additional demand?
Or should they at all?
My preference is that Hydro simply states clearly that, for environmental sustainability reasons, there will be no increase in generation capacity added to BC’s grid.
Therefore all new demand must be compensated for in the economy by efficiency gains and aggressive demand-side management. A steady state energy economy, despite increasing population. It’s what we need to do to cure global warming and other eco-ills anyway.
What do you think? Or what’s your alternative plan?
Rafe,
As I told Bill vanderZalm during the HST signings, I’d
have never thought I’d so thoroughly agree with you, ever.
I’ve been hanging on your words-and Ed Deak’s on the
Tyee for 5 years or so-and I’m in the choir.
The big problem is getting the message out. Where I work, just up the ( unneeded and still unfinished bit of BS ) highway from you, in Squamish-there are a lot of 20-30 somethings working for those IPPs-and they can’t or won’t see the deceit. Presumably intelligent, educated people just don’t care or want to know.
Maybe there are ways other than cranky old guys like
me (and there are genuine reasons for that ) trying to
explain the situation.
And-to get people to vote- I like daring them to have as
much courage as North African people.
When lithium gets to be a commodity like oil is now and they can’t afford batteries for there mp3s and “crack’berries it may be too late for s many.
I wholeheartedly agree with you on the future of BC Hydro and fish farming, I have been a faithful follower of you for years going back to your NW days. But I see you were over on the island a while back slamming the proposed coal mine at Fanny Bay, this is where we differ. The Cumberland coal mining industry ran for nearly 3/4 of a century with no environmental safeguards. Yet the fish ran thick in the rivers before, during and after the mining of coal. It seems logical to the us at the coffee group that a happy medium can be struck where the mine can operate and the shellfish industry can still flourish. These aren’t black and white issues, there is always middle ground for those who chose to seek it. There are far bigger environmental issues surrounding us than an underground coal mine. Please Rafe, help us find that middle ground. Lets put some people to work on good paying jobs.
You have my support. I too believe in Good Business and Good Government.. .anything else is a sell-out.
I couldn’t agree with you more. I am choked about the Liberal sell- off, of previous money making Crown corporations ie; BC Rail and now BC Hydro. Politicians should understand that it is about right and wrong in eyes of the voting public.Simply put, if you do the right thing you will win the hearts and minds of your constituents and be given a long tenure in Victoria. However, if you continuously do the wrong thing (and John Q Public gets wise to it) you will be crucified at the polls. We need businesses(big and small) to employ the people of this province, but we DO NOT need to sell off everything in a provincial firesale ,to keep everyone working. It is quite apparent to me, that very few folks in Victoria or Ottawa have any foresight. Either not knowing or not caring about how thier actions will affect future generations. Come September I think that Christy and company deserve a “wake up call” at the polls.