To the Editor,
Re: Site C gets cast as the latest global villain, Opinion, Oct. 13.
Tom Fletcher’s column claims that the proposed Site C dam makes sense. Unfortunately, while it may not be a “global villain,” the dam, costing some $8 billion dollars, will have a huge negative impact on all of us and our children as users of B.C. Hydro, as taxpayers, and as purchasers of food.
Site C will flood over 100 kilometres of the Peace River valley which includes prime agricultural land. We live in a time when climate change, with drought in places like California, makes it essential for B.C. to produce much more of our own food and we will need this land.
The Peace River area is central to several First Nations who signed Treaty 8 and it significantly infringes on their treaty rights.
The joint review panel for Site C found significant adverse environmental effects in terms of fish and fish habitat, vegetation, wildlife, aboriginal use, and cultural heritage as well as agricultural use.
And what for? Harry Swain, who chaired the panel, pointed out in a Vancouver Sun article that B.C. has no domestic need for Site C power; all we would be able to do with it is to sell it much below cost to Alberta or the United States: “Under reasonable assumptions, the present value of 20 years of such sales would be about $1.6 billion, or 18 percent of the currently estimated $8.8 billion cost of the project.”
To say, as Fletcher does in his column, that the reason Prime Minister Trudeau issues permits for Site C is “because it makes sense” leaves me wondering what planet he lives on. Surely, it can’t be planet Earth in the 21st century.
Jim ManlyNanaimo
To the Editor,
Re: Site C gets cast as the latest global villain, Opinion, Oct. 13.
Yes, the oil and gas will run out someday, hopefully sooner than later, which is why dams like Site C will be built – to provide a sustainable source of energy for our population far into the future. Fletcher’s argument is neatly summed up in the last paragraph: “because it makes sense.”
Michael HordelskiNanaimo