After more than 15 years of BC Hydro insisting demand was rising for electricity, Adrian Dix has now admitted what I documented repeatedly at IN-SIGHTS. CTV quoted the minister responsible for BC Hydro:
There’s been two decades of flat load growth at BC Hydro.
So the flat electricity demand I wrote about was real. The public narrative was not.
Exaggerating electricity demand kept highly paid consultants and BC Hydro executives employed for years while justifying megaprojects. The calls for another Peace River dam, and the fanciful notion of flooding a remote wilderness near Bute Inlet, are simply more of the same.
Yes, British Columbia will need new sources of electricity—but largely to serve LNG facilities and AI data centres. The legitimate needs of residents and businesses can be met through a combination of conservation, efficiency, and lower-impact renewable energy sources.
One thing that amused me during nearly two decades of blogging was watching much of the traditional media repeat corporate or government talking points while dismissing analyses drawn directly from public data.
Broadcaster Bill Good was particularly irritated by bloggers who critiqued his show. He enlisted allies to push back. Good enjoyed a long and respected career, but toward the end, his program became noticeably partisan. It never reached Fox News territory, yet it was consistently comfortable with the governing BC Liberals—and it showed.
Have a look and a listen at this item for the details. I suspect Bill Good and guests would not be proud if they heard their words from 2013. I still find it amusing.
Vancouver Sun columnist Vaughn Palmer is another traditional journalist who pretends the abject blog world should be ignored. His words on CKNW:
Nincompoops ranting in their underpants is the term for people blogging, for me.
Well, when it comes to BC Hydro, the nincompoops got it right.
Categories: BC Hydro
in-sights.ca 
Score one for Norm, the nincompoop-in-chief.
In 2016, The Narwhal repeated B.C. Hydro’s mantra:
However, BC Hydro spokesman Kevin Aquino said Site C is being built to meet the long-term electricity needs of BC Hydro customers and forecasts show that electricity demands in the province will increase by about 40 percent over the next 20 years.
Until now, BC Hydro never stopped saying what their sales figure proved wrong.
https://thenarwhal.ca/b-c-hydro-paying-independent-power-producers-not-produce-power-due-oversupply/
LikeLike
In recent months several announcements about government programs and existing services were issued. Many political promises have been delayed or cancelled.
Reason? The provincial check came back with Not Sufficient Funds.
Not enough money? Fair enough, Or is it?
========================================================================
It’s Laila Yuile!
The government claims there will be an increase in community supports and resources to access for families, but as with seniors, the reality on the ground is vastly different from the reality they discuss in Victoria. I spoke with a local parent and community advocate, who shared her experiences with me. She identified the many barriers parents have even before they get to the funding stage as well:
• lack of family doctor and/or pediatrician
• long waits once a physician has been found
• lack of access in many communities to professionals who diagnose and provide therapies
• children & youth with multiple comorbidities falling through cracks even though diagnosis has been given
If there is one thing the deep cuts of the BC Liberal era should have taught the NDP, it’s that a billion saved now will cost 100 billion to fix down the road. I think kids, families and seniors deserve better than a gamble and promise.
=========================================================================
https://www.ctvnews.ca/vancouver/article/bc-budget-15000-public-sector-jobs-to-be-cut-over-3-years/
B.C. budget: 15,000 public sector jobs to be cut over 3 years
=========================================================================
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/public-sector-job-cuts-b-c-provincial-deficit-9.7081699
Eby says 2,000 public service jobs cut and counting as B.C. faces $11.2B deficit
=========================================================================
https://www.taxpayer.com/newsroom?category=281
Taxpayers call on B.C. government to reappoint auditor general for local governments
=========================================================================
https://globalnews.ca/news/11824997/phase-2-burnaby-hospital-redevelopment-cancelled-government/
Phase 2 of Burnaby Hospital redevelopment cancelled by provincial government
=========================================================================
https://www.kelownanow.com/watercooler/news/news/Provincial/
BC NDP cancels $1K grocery rebate, blames Trump
========================================================================
https://www.ctvnews.ca/vancouver/article/bc-ndp-facing-backlash-after-eliminating-merit-commissioner/
B.C. NDP facing backlash after eliminating merit commissioner
========================================================================
https://www.ctvnews.ca/vancouver/article/bc-terminates-contractor-on-massey-tunnel-replacement-project/
B.C. terminates contractor on Massey Tunnel replacement project
=========================================================================
https://thegoldenstar.net/news/ndp-slashes-critical-family-support-program/
NDP slashes critical Family Support Program in 2025 for children needing treatment
=========================================================================
https://conservativebc.ca/ndp-government-cuts-housing-funding-while-forcing-communities-to-plan-for-housing-they-can-no-longer-build/
NDP Government Cuts Housing Funding While Forcing Communities to Plan for Housing They Can No Longer Build
=========================================================================
No money? What you do is impose Restraint..
Yet somehow, completely ignoring province-wide Austerity Policy 101, Energy Minister Dix proposes two new Hydro dams, one at least as expensive as $16 billion.
Not one mega project, TWO!
Explain it….
LikeLike
In recent months several announcements about government programs and existing services were issued. Many promises of project expansions or completions have been delayed or cancelled.
Reason? The provincial check came back with “Not Sufficient Funds”.
Not enough money? Fair enough, Or is it?
========================================================================
It’s Laila Yuile!
The government claims there will be an increase in community supports and resources to access for families, but as with seniors, the reality on the ground is vastly different from the reality they discuss in Victoria. I spoke with a local parent and community advocate, who shared her experiences with me. She identified the many barriers parents have even before they get to the funding stage as well:
• lack of family doctor and/or pediatrician
• long waits once a physician has been found
• lack of access in many communities to professionals who diagnose and provide therapies
• children & youth with multiple comorbidities falling through cracks even though diagnosis has been given
If there is one thing the deep cuts of the BC Liberal era should have taught the NDP, it’s that a billion saved now will cost 100 billion to fix down the road. I think kids, families and seniors deserve better than a gamble and promise.
=========================================================================
https://www.ctvnews.ca/vancouver/article/bc-budget-15000-public-sector-jobs-to-be-cut-over-3-years/
B.C. budget: 15,000 public sector jobs to be cut over 3 years
=========================================================================
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/public-sector-job-cuts-b-c-provincial-deficit-9.7081699
Eby says 2,000 public service jobs cut and counting as B.C. faces $11.2B deficit
=========================================================================
https://www.taxpayer.com/newsroom?category=281
Taxpayers call on B.C. government to reappoint auditor general for local governments
=========================================================================
https://globalnews.ca/news/11824997/phase-2-burnaby-hospital-redevelopment-cancelled-government/
Phase 2 of Burnaby Hospital redevelopment cancelled by provincial government
=========================================================================
https://www.kelownanow.com/watercooler/news/news/Provincial/
BC NDP cancels $1K grocery rebate, blames Trump
========================================================================
https://www.ctvnews.ca/vancouver/article/bc-ndp-facing-backlash-after-eliminating-merit-commissioner/
B.C. NDP facing backlash after eliminating merit commissioner
========================================================================
https://www.ctvnews.ca/vancouver/article/bc-terminates-contractor-on-massey-tunnel-replacement-project/
B.C. terminates contractor on Massey Tunnel replacement project
=========================================================================
https://thegoldenstar.net/news/ndp-slashes-critical-family-support-program/
NDP slashes critical Family Support Program in 2025 for children needing treatment
=========================================================================
https://conservativebc.ca/ndp-government-cuts-housing-funding-while-forcing-communities-to-plan-for-housing-they-can-no-longer-build/
NDP Government Cuts Housing Funding While Forcing Communities to Plan for Housing They Can No Longer Build
=========================================================================
No money? You impose Restraint..
Yet somehow, completely ignoring province-wide Austerity Policy 101, Energy Minister Dix proposes two new Hydro dams, one at least as expensive as $16 billion.
Not one unaffordable mega project, TWO!
Explain it….
LikeLiked by 1 person
Hello Norm.
Yes, you certainly did get it right. BCHydro still using the same hockey stick graph that just keeps moving to the right. Demand has remained relatively flat.
LikeLike
So glad to hear from you, Bob. As someone who lives in and flies over the Peace River Valley, you have seen firsthand the profound impact large hydroelectric dams have on the landscape.
Had BC Hydro placed greater emphasis on conservation and generating electricity closer to where it is consumed, some of northern British Columbia’s best farmland would still be producing crops.
Too many of the people making decisions from 333 Dunsmuir Street in downtown Vancouver seem disconnected from the realities of agriculture. Food does not originate on grocery store shelves; it comes from productive farmland. As agricultural land disappears from the Fraser Valley, the Fraser Delta, the Peace River region, and other farming areas of BC, our food security is steadily eroded.
If Donald Trump and his supporters ever decide to restrict the flow of goods into what they view as the 51st state, we will regret how little was done to protect British Columbia’s agricultural land when there was still time.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Just a reminder that the less-discussed project that Dix wants to revive, Bute Inlet hydro, has some pretty exciting geology in its neighbourhood.
Although its proponent (Plutonic, then Alterra) cancelled it around 2010(?), all of its documentation is still available on the BC environmental assessment website: https://projects.eao.gov.bc.ca/p/5885114eaaecd9001b81de9e/documents
The detailed maps available there show that one of the proposed locations for a run-of-river installation was on Elliot Creek, which drains off the Homathko Icefield and joins the Southgate River just east of the Inlet.
That’s the same Elliot Creek that was devastated by a spectacular landslide and tsunami in late 2020: https://hakai.org/stories/the-big-slide
But only nincompoops worry about stuff like that!
LikeLiked by 1 person