Integrity BC regularly exposes truths that public agencies do not want revealed. One example comes from the provincial utility’s desire to proclaim capital projects are on-time and on-budget — without bothering to say they had to keep extending time frames and increasing budgets to make the claims.
Perhaps an even more vile set of falsehoods is BC Hydro’s continuing claims that demand for electricity by its BC consumers has been growing steadily. That has led to excessive capital spending that measures in the billions.
As a result, electricity consumers have been forced to pay almost double the amount for the same quantity of power.
A friend of mine would like to buy a new car but his rational spouse said, “Forget about it. The old one suits our needs just fine.”
No rational person in BC Hydro’s boardroom has been willing to say forget about it when the spendthrifts propose new ways to spend our money. I understand why builders want to build. It’s their career; it’s what they do. And, it is easy when the money comes from someone else.
PDF versions of these charts:
BC Hydro 2004 2025 Forecasts vs Actual
BC Hydro Sales – Dollars and GWh – FY 2008 and FY 2018
BC Hydro Assets Liabilities GWh consumption 2006 2018
Categories: BC Hydro
in-sights.ca 
https://www.thetelegram.com/opinion/editorials/editorial-making-us-pay-252867/
LikeLike
Look at the Telegragh paper editorial Oct. 26 in Newfoundland about the Muskrat Falls enquiry where the private investors of the project are given preference over the public’s financing. It mimics Bc Hydro’s style perfectly. Its no coincidence.
The journalism is spot as well why governments/mega projects are a disater for the public purse.
Its refreshing to see someone thinking out there. We are not alone in our views.
LikeLike
This HydroQuebec 84 page document compares electricity prices among small, medium and large industry throughout many North American cities. I noted that Seattle was consistently higher than Vancouver, for example, even for small businesses. Naturally, no mention of Wenatchee WA.
Click to access comparison-electricity-prices.pdf
LikeLike
“maybe they shouldn’t have advertised it…”.
And not just for industry. From the sheer prevalence of new homes from Entiat through Orondo, and throughout Chelan County, the news has obviously been out for some time.
The Columbia River Treaty website was last updated in May.
https://engage.gov.bc.ca/columbiarivertreaty/
I own a small business in a rural area where three-phase isn’t available. That wasn’t initially a burden, but annual increases now threaten my livelihood.
LikeLike
Question. I believe that the Columbia River Power project has reached contract end. It is our power now. It is very inexpensive power now. Why is that not talked about or recognised as a potential source for BC citizens. I have seen numbers that claim that the power is equal to the potential from site C.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Canadian Entitlement is ours but has been sold in the USA for about 1/4 of what some IPPs are paid and maybe 1/5 of what Site C power will cost. This situation is prima facie evidence that BC Hydro managers are more interested in empire building than in delivering low cost power to BC consumers.
LikeLike
BC Hydro’s energy supply is supposed to come from BC only – this is from the BC Clean Energy Act:
(2) The authority (BC Hydro) must achieve electricity self-sufficiency by holding, by the year 2016 and each year after that, the rights to an amount of electricity that meets the electricity supply obligations solely from electricity generating facilities within the Province,
(a) assuming no more in each year than the heritage energy capability, and
(b) relying on Burrard Thermal for no energy and no capacity, except as authorized by regulation.
http://www.bclaws.ca/civix/document/id/consol24/consol24/00_10022_01#section6
Note how this benefits IPPs in BC.
LikeLike
A frequent reader, seldom comment. Recently picked up this newspaper in Wenatchee. An excellent article re what businesses/customers in WA state have: https://www.wenatcheeworld.com/news/2011/jun/01/cheapest-electricity-in-the-entire-country-but/
LikeLike
Barb, maybe they shouldn’t have advertised it…
https://seattlebusinessmag.com/technology/bitcoin-miners-are-flocking-central-washington-cheap-electricity
Here’s Boralex and BC Hydro arguing over their bitcoin stake.
https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/the-bitcoin-boom-reaches-a-canadian-ghost-town-1.1132476
It would be nice if our world-class pro journos locally would advise us how bitcoin mining is affecting BC. If our power is so cheap as claimed, are bitcoin miners flocking to BC and using BC Hydro output? If so, to what extent, and how is that affecting existing ratepayers? If they are not, …why not?
BC Hydro is continually publishing material with headlines like this one:
“Don’t let a high winter bill fool you: electricity prices in B.C. are among the lowest in North America.”
The bills that shouldn’t fool us are the ones BC Hydro pays for power from IPPs. And the ones they send the present and future LNG industry.
LikeLike
I believe Andrew Weaver could have stopped Site C dead in it’s tracks. 110 PERCENT He huffed and he puffed, but…….. That was it. Shameful. spineless. Now look what were stuck with. He had the chance to finally stop the buck and he BLEW IT.
LikeLike
The vile lying immoral BC Hydro hierarchy. So much for Horgan’s BS about making British Columbia more affordable. Him and our new government are and will continue to turn a willful blind eye to the big money no matter how much the people get screwed. As if we haven’t been screwed enough from the previous and thoroughly corrupt BC Liberal government. They are certainly all the same from the same swamp. And it is a dirty swamp that stinks to high heaven.
LikeLike
The NDP are carrying on like 2001 never happened. That the 2 seat rump after their decade in power meant absolutely nothing.
The NDP have ignored the lessons of history and goose step quickly into political oblivion.
LikeLike
Evil Eye says: “As I see it, there bloody little difference between the NDP and the Liberals.”
Yet Donald Trump clearly shows us that “not all politicians are the same.”
I certainly prefer Horgan’s persona to Christy’s, though I’ll agree with you that the NDP hasn’t veered far from the BC Liberal path. It seems a bigger dog is in charge.
LikeLiked by 1 person
You bet G. Barry. No one, but no one would dare pull a Horgan of his own volition. There HAS to be a bigger dog, but who and why. I sense a US super power authority, or NAW…North American Water Treaty – giving Canadian water to the lower states. Wendy Holmes expose.
LikeLike
G. Barry Stewart. your comment on Harvey’s Oct. 15 blog was sensible, erudite and bang on. Kudos to Gene the Bean too. Well done both of you.
LikeLike
The King is dead; long live the King.
As I see it, there bloody little difference between the NDP and the Liberals. Both lack the moral courage to tell the truth to the public.
Horgan’s NDP have continued the political flim flam.
Truth is just not in a politician’s lexicon!
LikeLike
That first paragraph made me laugh. Well it is funny. Its like a Popeye cartoon, with Wimpey, promising to repay the money on Tuesday, just never saying, what Tuesday.
omg, if your teacher won’t accept that line, why ought the taxpayers of this province. Its like the dog ate my homework. Surely people paid as much as they are could find a better excuse.
of course they tell their “version of the truth”, it works for them. What I don’t get is why the NDP/GREENS have gone along with the b.s. They really had nothing to loose by canning Site C at the beginning and diverting the money to other projects around the province for things like hospitals, schools, roads, affordable housing.
You really wonder why they drank the cool aid. The worst of it is, from the pictures on Laila Yuille’s blog and the Alaska Highway news, it looks like that dam dam could slide right away, if not today, certainly at some point in time, not that far away. that truly will be $10B down the river of no return.
LikeLike
Ten Billion would be small potatoes e.a.f. Can you imagine the lawsuits for all the loss of life, loss of property. $10 Billion would scarcely pay all the lawyer charges.
LikeLike
One notices this lying all over the world with private/public relationships, and never a discussion or a legislature debate is ever held. A neoliberal empire without a public voice to be heard or voted upon is really upon us.
A fundalmentalism ruling as.
They use our inventiveness to place our profit into their pockets.
Their ruthlessness is breathtaking, and without any shame while we are helpless.
The simple facts of Norm’s presentation makes the picture very clear.
So the problem is more complex as it’s not simple corruption.
If we can win on this one it will be a major victory.
It means jail time for crime, and the restoration of profit for BC Hydro.
Where is the Justice going to come from?
LikeLike
Hi Norm. A quote from “Adults in the Room” by Yanis Varoufakis who credits Upton Sinclair for it.
” It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends upon his not understanding it.”
LikeLiked by 2 people
“The updated filing also impugns BC Hydro’s forecasts of domestic demand used to justify the Site C dam just a few years ago, reflecting that hydro customers are being forced to subsidize cheap power to American and possibly Alberta customers through the construction of the $9 billion dam.”
“The latest filing is an admission of what our leader John Horgan and I have been saying – that the Clark government misled the voters and abandoned ratepayers. They are making life less affordable for customers and costing jobs by increasing costs on B.C. businesses.”
http://bcndpcaucus.ca/news/clark-government-mismanagement-bc-hydro-set-increase-costs-customers-years-come/
The NDP adults in the room understood it two years ago. And yet the “vile set of falsehoods” Norm reveals now apparently has Mr. Horgan’s approval.
Shame on Mr. Horgan.
LikeLiked by 4 people
….and Mr. Horgan and his energy minister Michelle Mungall are all in on this and smiling. Where do they park their conscience?
LikeLiked by 1 person
BCUC doesnt have companies getting lobbyists to buy what they have to sell?
LikeLiked by 1 person