Wednesday, April 22, 2015

BC Hydro Site C: Energy Minister Bill Bennett's claim of 'shovels in the ground' - 2015

Vaughn Palmer's column in the Vancouver Sun last two paragraphs on the need to get going on Site C before the big freeze:

.....  Energy Minister Bill Bennett — namely, in light of all the action in the courts, is he still confident that construction will get underway later this year?

“I am confident that we’ll have shovels in the ground sometime this summer,” he replied, speaking mostly for himself and not for anyone observing this imbroglio from the sidelines.

For a can-do-Core-reviewer on value for money, BC Liberal Minister Bill Bennett has selected a very low road threshold to success for BC Hydro $9 Billion project in 2015.

Shovels?

A Show of Shovels?

Direct, or Indirect make-work jobs of manufacturing Canadian Shovels?

So, so many shovels that the GCPE staff will have Site C looking like a military cemetery.






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The BC Energy Plan (2010)  also known as   The Ralph Zucker Plan

2016  energy self sufficiency

Standing offer for green power UP 10 MW

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6 comments:

scotty on denman said...

Bennet's a chauvinist by definition: he'll doggedly defend his partisan position no matter how patently absurd or evidently unbelievable. To the type of chuffed self-confidence Christy shows by ignoring physics and economics (LNG), or by disrespecting the Constitution at taxpayers' expense (teachers' contracts), Bennet adds sweating bombast, as he's done with the Mount Polley mining disaster ( "There's no disaster! Everything's just fine!"), Jumbo Peaks (bombast-boosted with a mayor and council appointed by BC Liberal buddies because the new "municipality's" population has yet to crest zero), and of course Site-C which would flood the highest latitude productive agricultural land in the Northern Hemisphere, at tremendous cost to taxpayers and Hydro customers, all in the face of stiff opposition in the form of public opinion and the teeth of First Nations' recently confirmed Aboriginal rights.

Despite the fact that the ostensible rationale for building Site-C---to power dozens of natural gas liquifying plants preposterously envisioned by Christy Clark---has completely tanked for the foreseeable future (i.e., world markets for LNG have collapsed due to over-capacity), the BC Liberals have themselves admitted the project will be expensive---very, very expensive. This from a government of complete economic charlatans whose bogus, self-proclaimed free-enterprise prowess has hobbled BC with crippling debt (tripled since taking office, and growing faster with each passing day), crumbling infrastructure, and the spectre of social stresses about to snap. As if this wasn't warning enough, corruption, cronyism, conflicted interests and cover-ups proved so far appear more and more clearly to be just the tip of a huge, submerged ice burg of ideological neo-right sabotage and parasitism. The tacit cynicism that barley bothers to conceal this damning evidence insists nevertheless that Site-C is needed, affordable and in capable, trustworthy hands.

Bennet assures that chauvinism and absurdity are in his own capable hands---we can trust him to this extent only, but how long can we afford it?

Anonymous said...

Keep in mind that site C is intended - not for BC residents - but for foreign interests.

!st: load up Hydro with over inflated commitments (think BC Rail levels of debt)

2nd: plug the Hydro grid into the North American grid (just like BC Rail) to sell all the excess power

3rd: declare Hydro a dysfunctional money losing mess (think BC Rail... again)

4th: claim VICTORY over the slack jawed tax & spend Socialists, and all the while flaunting the BC Liberals financial prowess when the asset is fire saled for BILLIONs to friends of BC Liberals

Anonymous said...

" scotty on denman said "

No one could have said it better. You are 100% right, however the Liberals will do anything to produce numbers in the "Jobs" category. And the stupid taxpayers of BC will never realize that any and I mean any government can spend tax dollars & create jobs. But where is the private sector that supports the Liberal party. Oh ya... waiting for the next corporate welfare cheque.

Guy in Victoria

Anonymous said...

Dam first then privatize

Anonymous said...

And VP drops another one...

BC Liberals are 4-for-4 in going over budget with Hydro transmission line projects.

http://www.vancouversun.com/Vaughn+Palmer+budget+transmission+lines+More+like+Fawlty+Towers/10995750/story.html

"So from a combined $1,430 million, the budgets for all four projects have grown to $1,946 million or just short of $2 billion. Collective over-run, $516 million or 36 per cent."

John's Aghast said...

Bang on Scotty! You certainly have a way with words.
I'm glad you brought up Mt. Polley. Wonder how the clean-up's going? Think 80%, like English Bay?
Ever wonder how someone with no formal education can rise to the position to mandate these decisions?
I'm still somewhat aghast at the revelations Laila is providing on her blog about another mindless issue.
Why have we not heard anything about the $100 million project just tendered by BC Hydro for the construction of the TFW's campsite for Site C? Perhaps Billy Boy is on to something?
Cheers!