Our provincial government is currently getting rid of BC Hydro by saddling it with debt, imploding the company, and giving it away to their corporate buddies. But how will these crooks try to get away with it? To figure it out we need to study history.
Back in the 1960s BC’s premier decided that all B.C. families should have electricity. BC Hydro was created with taxpayer funds building massive dams to produce and distribute power, selling the excess to world markets for profit. B.C. families got cheap power and the government made money to build roads, schools and hospitals. Government taxed less; businesses gained advantage; industry flourished.
Power to homes in rural B.C. meant less time spent on chores and more time living, working, playing and learning. Reliable heat, light and power meant the automation of cooking and cleaning, unlocking more time, liberating women from the house. Computers and internet arrived and electricity connected B.C. to the rest of the world. But once it was built and had become so valuable, corporations coveted the people’s wealth and funded a political party to help steal it.
In 2001, the ruling NDP party had made too many fiscal mistakes giving the corporately funded Liberals their chance. By 2002 the new Liberal corporate government was already selling the idea of Independent Power Projects. The government then forced BC Hydro to purchase power from these IPPs even though it wasn’t needed. Worse yet, at inflated rates: three times market value and 10 times what it cost to produce, bringing Hydro to its knees.
Now in 2013 Liberal MLA Bill Bennett is running around complaining to media that BC Hydro is draining our economy. The very politicians who broke BC Hydro are now offering us a choice: pay more for power or privatize.
If we lose BC Hydro we also lose the grid. This becomes more important when we actually become producers of power ourselves, with solar panels and wind turbines on our roofs. If the grid remains the property of the people then people can trade power freely – true energy independence. Give away the grid and we pay to use the system at best, or at worst we can’t share energy at all.
Corporate interests are already preparing for grid privatization. A massive solar farm is being built on Teck’s Sullivan mine property to take advantage of this coming change. Currently, we the people own the power system through our elected officials so Teck technically buys power from us. If our elected officials give away our system then you will be buying power from Teck, or worse yet their buddies at the China Investment Corporation.
Alex Hanson
Sparwood