DECEMBER 2017 • COUNTRY LIFE IN BC Potential for termination
of Site C cause for hope NDP to announce $10 billion project’s fate this month
by PETER MITHAM
FORT ST JOHN – Some time this month, the NDP will decide whether or not to cancel single biggest public works project in BC’s history. Bear Flat farmer Ken Boon is hopeful that it will, clearing the way for local farmers to buy back the land BC Hydro expropriated from them a year ago. “We’re very encouraged with what’s come out of this review. A lot of very critical information has come out that would not have seen the light of day until it was too late,” says Boon, speaking from his property west of Fort St John. “Cabinet will take that and then in conjunction with other issues, such as the findings that came out of the previous environmental assessment process, they’ll determine the fate of Site C.” Unfortunately, if the project is cancelled,
plenty of uncertainties remain for Boon and others. BC Hydro sent the Boons an e-mail
following the May 9 provincial election, when it became clear there was no clear winner, advising them that they could stay in their house for the foreseeable future. Boon’s neighbours, Colin Meek and Leslee Jardine, are in a similar position. “We’re still living in our house. We ended up getting a whole series of extensions on getting kicked out of our house,” Boon said. “[But] it’s not ours anymore. It’s BC Hydro’s in holding for this project.” So are 140 acres that Boon raised hay on this past summer, which BC Hydro leased back to him on a three-year term, based on the planned diversion of the Peace River in 2019. BC Hydro didn’t grant the Boons a lease for 40 acres slated for realignment of the highway, which largely sat fallow this year. But the road realignment was put on hold earlier this year, and an alternative route is being considered even if the project does proceed to avoid a site of interest to local First Nations. Should the province terminate Site C, the Expropriation Act allows BC Hydro to hold the land for just two years prior to giving the Boons first dibs on buying it back. “If the purpose of the taking is no longer
there after two years, they have to sell it back and the previous owners get the first right of
refusal,” he says. But a lot of water has to flow past the dam
site before then and that means uncertainties for the Boons and the 70 landowners represented by the Peace Valley Landowners Association. While former agriculture minister Norm Letnick claimed the project would impact just 10 to 15 farmers, opponents of the project say it will flood thousands of acres that may not be in production now but could be
“Our main focus is just to kill this stupid project and get on with life.” KEN BOON, BEAR FLAT
needed in the future. (Letnick’s own estimate of lost farmland pegged the total at more than 7,400 acres, a reasonable sacrifice, he claimed, for the public good of environment-friendly hydro power.) “We have a tremendous capability in this valley here, Class 1 farmland,” Boon says. “That we would even consider destroying that is just mind-boggling.” He would like to see the province cancel the
project so he and his wife, Meek, Jardine and others, can get on with their lives. “We just don’t know here. There’s so much
uncertainty,” he says of the present situation. “Our main focus is just to kill this stupid project and get on with life. Forty years is enough. We don’t need it anymore.” Indeed, a review of the project the BC
Utilities Commission undertook in August at the behest of the NDP government determined that the project could cost more than $10 billion – at least $1.6 billion beyond current estimates – while cancelling it and developing alternative power sources could cost a paltry $1.8 billion. The review also mentioned other costs,
foremost among them being costs associated with infringement of First Nations title and “the loss of valuable agricultural land due to flooding.” “We’re very hopeful, in light of all of that,” Boon said. “I don’t see how the provincial government could possibly find any other conclusion than to terminate this project. And that’s a pretty exciting prospect for all of us.”
ON HOLD. Ken and Arlene Boon are waiting to see if the NDP cancels Site C and they’re able to buy back their farm. FILE PHOTO
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