Unlock the Legislature, Gordon
The chilling story of the privatisation of B.C. Hydro continues, this time via the back door as B.C. Hydro, with the blessing of Gordon Campbell – in secret, with a locked Legislature offering no opportunity for public debate – is set to sign contracts which will commit B.C. taxpayers to forking out $15.6 billion to independent and foreign power companies.
The scope of the deal is such that over 8% of B.C.‘s power produced must be bought, at much higher prices, from these private power producers.
Looking at this another way, the signing of these contracts will mean that Campbell has been successful in privatising another 8% of B.C. Hydro, and power consumers will be on the hook for costs more than double the market rate.
The rational for this change is hard to fathom. The old policy worked very well. By generating its own power, B.C. Hydro ensured that ratepayers enjoyed, on average, the second lowest electricity prices in North America. This is because prices were based on the historic cost of production, not the current energy market price. At the same time, B.C. Hydro contributed about three quarters of a billion dollars, annually, to the provincial government from dividends, water rentals and taxes in lieu.
Under the new plan, B.C. Hydro has to buy virtually all its future electrical energy from private power developers. To do this B.C. Hydro has to enter legally binding contracts—called Energy Purchase Agreements—with private energy corporations. The agreements lock B.C. Hydro (and B.C. taxpayers) into financial commitments of up to 40 years. John Calvert, former member of the province’s Integrated Electricity Planning, member of the board of Citizens For Public Power, writes in The Tyee BC Hydro’s Amazingly Bad Deal for Taxpayers
If this were actually a democracy we lived in, such a radical move to dismantle a key public trust would justify calling an election. Instead Campbell gets to lock the legislature (because there is no rule preventing him) and stick it out in government, despite that issues of the day properly demand that he seek a mandate from the people (because he adopted fixed election dates).
This is one reason why I do not support fixed election dates. They sound good on the surface, but real conservatives know that change of long-standing traditions often comes with hidden price tags.
Come on Gordon, be a man, be a democrat, reveal the contract details, and unlock the legislature so members can debate these radical changes B.C. Hydro is making. Changes no one in B.C. voted for.