The Common Sense Canadian is pleased to provide the following guest article by BC NDP leadership candidate Mike Farnworth, detailing his vision for the future of our energy policy in BC. We hope to provide you with statements from the other NDP leadership candidates in the lead-up to the party's April 17 vote.
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There’s a discussion that needs to take place in this province around the legacy of one of British Columbia’s greatest builders.
That person was W.A.C. Bennett. Partisan politics aside, all British Columbians owe the first Premier Bennett a debt for his leadership in creating B.C. Hydro, and establishing the importance of public, large-scale hydroelectric power to both our province’s economic development and environmental protection.
The vision that he showed back in the 1950s and 60s has served this province well to the current day, and that vision is public power for the public good. It is a vision that I believe in, and one I am committed to fighting for as leader of the BC NDP, and as Premier of the province.
It’s a vision we need to build on, but also one we need to protect. As I’ve said throughout my campaign, I believe that our social and economic development must be developed through the key lens of sustainability. And public power is one of the most sustainable public assets we have, one that must be protected.
That is why a key part of my extensive environmental policy platform has been to protect these assets. I have committed to:
- Ending the sell-off our public assets by placing a moratorium on all new independent power projects (IPPs);
- Ending the secrecy surrounding IPPs by opening up all existing power purchasing agreements to public review and scrutiny, and, where possible end or amend agreements that don’t serve the public interest; and,
- Reinstating independent oversight of the BC Utilities Commission.
The development of independent power projects, and in particular the run of the river projects, have largely taken place behind closed doors, and in a vacuum of a broader strategic discussion about the true nature of our energy needs in B.C.
The question of the downstream benefits, and the Columbia River Treaty, is up in 2024. Those benefits will then return to us. When we look at how our energy policy should be shaped, at what direction public power development should take, we need to be taking these factors into account, and openly engaging the public.
And because this is such a vital public resource, the public does have a right to transparency where the existing IPP contracts are concerned. The government should be able to answer the questions about what’s in the contracts, why are we paying more, and should we be paying more. We need to bring some clarity and some openness into the IPP agreements that have been signed. We need to have somebody independent going in and looking at them, such as the Auditor General for example, and determining whether those contracts are in the public interest.
We also need to restore the oversight capacity of the B.C. Utilities Commission. When you strip away public oversight, as the BC Liberal government has done, and you strip away environmental oversight on projects under a particular size, people rightly start asking questions. We need to return people’s faith to public power.
Because at the end of the day, this is a public resource. We own it. Public power has been one of the best economic advantages this province has had, and can and should continue to have for generations to come.
It can generate energy for many, many years. We buy power in the middle of the night, when the generators are going. We turn off the generators on our dams, and our reservoirs fill up. And in the morning, we sell our own power at peak price. That’s a good business deal to me, it’s a good deal for our environment, and it’s a good deal for British Columbians.
You can find out more about Mike Farnworth's comprehensive plan for the environment here.
