Counsel for Two First Nations who Acted in the Supreme Court of B.C. and the B.C. Court of Appeal Against B.C. Reacts to John Horgan’s Latest Announcement About the Site C Dam
John Gailus represented Prophet River First Nation and West Moberly First Nations in both the Supreme Court of British Columbia (2015) and the British Columbia Court of Appeal (2017) in their attempts to stop the Site C Dam from being built. Today, he responds to the recent announcement by John Horgan that the B.C. government will continue with the Site C project despite the budget currently sitting at $16 billion – this most recent in several increases, this time blamed largely on unexpected geotechnical issues and delays due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
The cost of the Site C Dam project has now more than doubled from the time that the Environmental Assessment Certificate was granted by BC in October, 2014. The initial cost estimate of $7.9 billion ballooned to $8.8 billion two months later when the Final Investment Decision was made, without a shovel being put in the ground. The only basis upon which BC was able to justify its approval of the Project was that it was the cheapest option. Alternatives were never seriously considered. Available sources of power were excluded from the analysis of the need for the project. In spite of stacking the deck in favour of approval, BC Hydro could not show that the project was needed at all either now or into the future. However, the BC Liberal government chose to bypass the BC Utilities Commission – which would have conducted a detailed analysis both of the costs of the project and the geotechnical issues. Site C never would have been built if that analysis had happened. The NDP had the opportunity to kill this unnecessary, wasteful project in 2017, but fell victim to the sunk cost fallacy. They continue to repeat that error.
While they may blame the Liberals for starting this project, the NDP owns it now. Well, actually the ratepayers will be on the hook for this boondoggle. It should be named the “Christy Clark Dam” in honour of her hubris to push the project to the “point of no return”.
See the factum as it was filed on behalf of Prophet River First Nation and West Moberly First Nation in the B.C. Court of Appeal here:
Appellant's Factum
Factum filed in the Court of Appeal by Prophet River First Nation and West Moberly First Nation
Photo is an artist’s rendering of the proposed Site C Dam.