Frenemies John Horgan and Bill Bennett have elevated the contentious, semi-friendly bickering argument that will likely last the rest of their lives.
It’s easy to imagine the two of them in advanced old age, sitting in rocking chairs at the rest home, still squabbling over the idea of damming the Peace River again for hydroelectric power. It’s harder to imagine whether the thing will be built by then. It’s anyone’s guess.
As Opposition leader, Horgan has the authority to place his peeves about the Site C dam project higher on the NDP priority list. And as energy minister, Bennett served notice after the inconclusive joint review panel report last week that the time is drawing near to make the call on the project. So the pace of argument that’s been roiling for years is picking up.
And the joint review panel did nothing to settle it. The 470-page report released last week has provided both sides with an almost equal amount of ammunition.
So when they met Monday in question period for the umpteenth round, they each had fresh new background for the same old argument.
Horgan quoted a finding that B.C. Hydro, which has spent $300 million studying the project, hasn’t valued the alternatives such as geothermal and demanded to know why alternative energy has been disregarded.
Bennett said his read of the report was that “when — not if — the province needs this new electricity, the very best place to get it is from Site C.”
“I’ve got lots of quotations I’d be happy to read into the record, but that is in fact what they said.”
Horgan said he missed the point about alternatives and the need to have them studied by the independent utilities commission, which the B.C. Liberals have sidelined on the project.
Horgan: “The JRP said we don’t need the energy today. Quite clearly and categorically, we don’t need the energy today.”
Bennett responded that if his new job doesn’t work out Horgan could become a contortionist, “because he has twisted around so many times on this project.”
He said Site C hydro power would last 100 years, but wind generation lasts only 30. And the JRP agreed with B.C. Hydro about predictable delivery.
“I know the leader of the Opposition gets this stuff. I know he understands firm power.”
Horgan snorted: “Talk about predictable delivery.”
With no utilities commission review, he said Site C is rolling forward on the basis of “Liberals asking Liberals what they think about what the Liberals should do.”
Under current electricity pricing projections, the project would lose $800 million in the first few years, he said. That’s blowing money by building it before its time.
Bennett said the $8-billion project has a huge contingency fund built in, and all costs have been checked independently.
Each politician has a lot going on in the background. Horgan is conscious of the perception that the party he just took over by default stands against almost everything to do with creating jobs. The NDP is coming out strongly against the Enbridge Northern Gateway pipeline to Kitimat and seems to be working toward a similar stand on the Trans Mountain Pipeline to Burnaby.
But any opposition party is averse to agreeing with a government, so the NDP’s current stand on Site C is intensely skeptical, but not yet completely opposed.
Bennett would build the dam in a minute if it were his call alone. But there’s a long list of complicated issues that have to be handled. The government has to bring a lot of First Nations onside, all but one of which is opposed at this point. It has to do the same with farmers, whose land would be inundated by the dam. The joint review found the overall agricultural impact to be minimal. But the dam would wipe out specific farms in the floodplain and the government has already turned agriculture into an opposition rallying point with its changes to the ALR.
But those are separate wrangles that will play out up to decision day around the end of the year. And likely well beyond.
