Calling it a “difficult decision,” the B.C. government has decided to go ahead with the controversial Site C hydroelectric dam, paving the way for work to restart.
The NDP government had been debating whether to continue the construction of the dam — which will flood 5,500 hectares of the Peace River valley and displace many Indigenous communities and farmers — or cancel the work midway through the job.
Ultimately, the government concluded that cancelling the project near Fort St. John would result in a 12 per cent increase in hydro rates in 2020. It also forecast overall rates would be nearly twice as high for 20 years beyond 2020 if it cancelled Site C — or would leave the government with significantly less money to spend on other infrastructure spending.
An estimated $2 billion has been spent so far on the dam, announced by the previous B.C. Liberal government in 2014.
The government now expects the dam, originally budgeted at $8.3 billion, will cost approximately $10 billion, with $700 million set aside in a reserve for overruns.
Bob Peever of BC Hydro gives a tour of the Site C dam location near Fort St. John in April, 2017. On completion, the dam would flood 5,500 hectares of the Peace River Valley and provide energy to power the equivalent of around 500,000 homes. (Jonathon Hayward/The Canadian Press)
The B.C. Utilities Commission, the independent energy regulator, concluded in its assessment that the dam is over budget and behind its scheduled completion of 2024.
The dam has been marked by deeply divisive approaches to environmental, economic, technological and Indigenous concerns that have become the front lines of political battles in B.C.