Norman Farrell
BC Hydro, provider of social and corporate welfare
The $12 billion utility delivered more power to its BC residential and business consumers in calendar year 2005 than the now $38 billion utility delivered in 2019…
Our BC Hydro bills subsidize fossil fuel industries
You will find evidence at In-Sights proving government policies and subsidies have cut public revenue from petroleum and natural gas producers to a tiny fraction of what it once was.…
Clark formed the policy; Horgan accelerated it
Petroleum and natural gas rights sale results reflect policies of a government dedicated to increasing fossil fuel production. To do that, they are giving away the public share of these…
Vulnerable societies
Compounding the economic risk factors that are manifesting is a widespread domestic discontent with current economic systems, perceived to be rigged and unfair. Concern about inequality underlies recent social unrest…
Fighting climate change with slash and burn
Right now they’re destroying two amazing landmarks on the river, tall rock pillars called “The Gates” in an attempt to cut a channel of the river off and use the…
Death spiral
Unless major changes occur at BC’s public utility—something the Horgan Government seems determined to avoid—the 60-year-old company’s death spiral will advance.
BC Hydro’s long-standing culture of deception
Serious storm clouds lie ahead. The only customers that create positive cash flow for BC Hydro are the residential, light industrial and commercial consumers. Political commitments have been made to…
Radioactive
We already knew the oil and gas business was poisoning land and water and polluting the atmosphere. Most people, including workers in the northeast gas fields, are probably unaware that…
Unmeasured GHG emissions ignored
One of the pre-election promises made quietly by the BC NDP to me and other concerned citizens was to apply best scientific practices in regulating British Columbia’s northeast gas fields.…
Perverse leadership in ‘immunity via collective failure’ globally.
Effective mitigation now must mean a regulated managed decline of fossil fuel production in Canada and globally. No new infrastructure; no new production facilities – oilsands or LNG; a Green…
Next generation wind energy
Those of us who opposed construction of the Site C dam—including the BC NDP until May 2017—argued that rapid advances in alternative energy systems meant flooding the Peace River valley…
Canada’s shame
Lost in the fuss as governments of British Columbia and Canada act to expropriate rights and lands of the Wet’suwet’en people is a sad situation that already gave proof to…
Natural gas production up, public revenue down
Citizens of BC are misled by government about economic returns from natural gas. Relevant statistics are not readily available and the ministries prefer to conceal them. Since government does not…
Ruled by climate change deniers
Both the Horgan and Trudeau governments made symbolic commitments to the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP). Neither was sincere. Horgan passed UNDRIP into BC law…
Delusion, deception, inertia
Faced with a choice between respecting Supreme Court confirmed indigenous governance and serving foreign financial interests (Shell, Petronas, and PetroChina), BC NDP joined with the land polluters, not the land…
Deficient
Failures and reversals of John Horgan’s government mount. The NDP promise to apply UNDRIP is proving as hollow as acknowledgments NDP members make when meeting upon unceded indigenous territory in British…
Enough said
Regular readers will be aware that BCI has a long history of extravagant rewards to insiders. These measure 3x to 5x amounts paid to top people at the similar organization…
Public consultations, sincere or fake?
Transparent decision making and promises of public engagements have been common in British Columbia. Liberal leader Gordon Campbell’s 2001 platform undertook to: Hold open Cabinet meetings at least once a…
Hopeful change?
Today, Premier Horgan gave Energy Minister Michelle Mungall a new job, replacing her with Bruce Ralston. I am encouraged, anticipating (perhaps naively) that leadership of the department responsible for BC…