Site C not necessarily a slam dunk: Bennett, Business in Vancouver, October 15, 2014 “Energy and Mines Minister Bill Bennett says he is still torn on whether his government should give the green light to BC Hydro’s $7.9 billion Site C hydroelectric dam…” Vaughn Palmer quoting Bill Bennett, The Vancouver
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Northern Insight / Perceptivity: Careless or captured?
When you read or listen to resource industry advocates, especially ones masquerading as objective political pundits, compare their concerns in 2009 about burning natural gas to generate peak-demand electricity to their current support for burning natural gas to liquefy natural gas. The following was first published at Northern Insight on
Continue readingNorthern Insight / Perceptivity: Don’t follow the law, change the law
British Columbia’s Auditor General reported to the BC Legislature and there is interesting commentary throughout. Carol Bellringer qualified her opinion as to the fairness of the province’s financial statements and professional accountants regard that as not-good. “This year, our audit opinion on the Summary Financial Statements contains twoqualifications, or areas
Continue readingNorthern Insight / Perceptivity: "…A lot more electricity being needed."
British Columbians are fortunate to be guided by wise and experienced leaders, people able to analyze events and foresee the future in ways that more practised experts cannot. One of my favourites is Bill Bennett, a man particularly qualified to make decisions on how the public ought to spend tens
Continue readingNorthern Insight / Perceptivity: Liberal estimates and guesstimates
BC’s Minister of Energy and Mines says the $7.9 billion budget for Site C is “reliable” and the estimate of “direct construction costs” of $3.8 billion has “an 18% contingency.” Bill Bennett’s words are imprecise but if $3.8 billion includes the contingency, the allowance for known unknowns and unknown unknowns
Continue readingCowichan Conversations: SaskPower To Uninstall Smart Meters Due To Safety Issues
Imagine this happening in BC! The BCNDP Opposition had raised concerns about safety and the overall approach taken by BC Hydro under direction of the BC Liberals. Now this… REGINA – SaskPower has announced that they are removing all the smart meters that were installed in the province. The minister
Continue readingNorthern Insight: Patronage and private privilege – BC Liberal P3
By numerous measures — lower job and GDP creation, fewer public services and rapid expansion of public debt — BC Liberals are colossal failures. Most BC residents are unaware because the major accomplishment of this government is its mastery of disinformation as political strategy. With a breathtakingly large crew of
Continue readingCowichan Conversations: Rafe Mair Rants About BC Hydro Lies From BC Liberals, But Hydro Is Blameless
As we are treated to distortion, lies and revisionist BS Rafe Mair of the Common Sense Canadian steps in and tells it like it is. Rafe Mair The crap we’re obliged to take is becoming too odorous for these old nostrils. We’re told by Bill Bennett that there will be
Continue readingNorthern Insight: Consumers targeted by BC Liberals
Governments prefer indirect taxation partly because politicians assume they’ll take less heat if hands of tax collectors slip into our pockets surreptitiously. That’s done in BC by instructing crown corporations to overcharge customers and transfer surpluses to the public treasury. This allows BC Liberals to make a claim like one
Continue readingNorthern Insight: Punishing electricity consumers
When Gordon Campbell led BC Liberals into the 2009 election campaign, his platform promised, “We will maintain our competitive advantage from low cost heritage power, for residential and industrial users alike.” When that promise was made, BC Hydro’s annual domestic revenues were $2.8 billion. In 2013, they extracted over $4
Continue readingNorthern Insight: One value Premier failed to learn: truthfulness
In Sunday’s thirty minute TV commercial, Christy Clark said that leadership involves, “holding true to the values you were raised with…” If I were one of the people that parented her, I would feel a sense of failure, values wise, since she has little commitment to truthfulness. For example, she
Continue readingCowichan Conversations: The BC NDP Face Grim Choices Over BC Hydro-Fracking and the Site ‘C’ Dam Proposal
Richard Hughes-Political Blogger The BC Liberal’s, when under the firm grip of former Premier Gordon Campbell, liquidated much of BC Hydro, the the once proud mothership of our Crown Corps. Campbell sold and dealt off many of the assets and services and then through the insane ‘Run of the River’
Continue readingCowichan Conversations: BC NDP Will Have To Be Smart, Tough and Green!
Don Maroc-Cowichan Conversations Contributor BC logs should be used to create B.C. jobs, says the NDP. Absolutely, and low cost B.C. electricity should be used to make BC manufacturers competitive and more than competitive in the global marketplace. And if Gordon Campbell’s run-of-the-river power pirates insist on continuing to charge
Continue readingNorthern Insight: Take from the poor, give to the rich
Further to my comments about homeowners subsidizing industrial power, here is an extract from the blog of Vancouver lawyer Jim Quail, Site C and the Kitimat LNG Export Terminal: Christy Clark’s Program for Income Redistribution: “…Hydro would sell that much power to one corporate mega-project, at industrial tariff rates of
Continue readingNorthern Insight: Rush to secure rewards
With only 27 weeks to oblivion, BC Liberals have limited time to pick forbidden fruit. We know about the failed bid to privatize BCLDB and the flood of high cost private power contracts foisted on BC Hydro while the Pacific Northwest is awash in cheap power and excess capacity. Now,
Continue readingNorthern Insight: Would we vote for someone who promised to:
“Protect BC Hydro and all of its core assets, including dams, reservoirs and power lines under public ownership.” “Restore an independent BC Utilities Commission, to re-regulate BC Hydro’s electricity rates.” “Pass a Living Rivers Act to protect and improve BC’s river systems with scientifically-based standards for watershed management, enhancements to
Continue readingNorthern Insight: Media fails to give an honest account
http://edocs.lib.sfu.ca/cgi-bin/Cartoons?CartoonID=2239 Yesterday, the Liberal government claimed its diligent examination of TransLink had resulted in $139 million in annual savings. As I noted, the claim was easily determined to be false. Yet that did not stop the media echo chamber from repeating, even amplifying, the delusive assertions. A news commentator recently
Continue readingCowichan Conversations: BC NDP Leader Adrian Dix Speaks Truth To Vancouver Board of Trade
Richard ‘Hub’ Hughes-Political Blogger BC NDP Leader Adrian Dix is offering BC Voters, including the business community, a thoughtful and measured approach to governing after years of a troubled and polarized BC under the control of the BC Liberal government. Give him credit for showing up and speaking truth to those who have been
Continue readingCowichan Conversations: Two Veteran Environmental Warriors Rafe Mair & Economist Erik Anderson on the Site C Damn
Richard Hub Hughes-Political Blogger Our friend and fellow blogger Rafe Mair delves into today’s energy issues with Economist Erik Anderson. Damien Gillis has put this video together with two important environmental warriors. Well worth a look. Video: Rafe Mair and Economist Erik Andersen, Pt. 2 – LNG, Site C
Continue readingCowichan Conversations: A number of people should go to jail for what has been done to BC Hyrdo!
Good Morning, Damien Gillis from the Commonsense Canadian produced and has made available this excellent interview that is shocking to say the least. In it Rafe questions economist Erik Anderson about the real story of what is happening and what has happened to BC Hydro and why. Part 1 of
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