CFAX Radio, Victoria, Nov. 21, 2007

Excerpt:

Joe Easingwood: Carole James, on the assessment of the government’s latest announcement regarding its green plan. Your calls. Richard, in Victoria.

Richard: This hydro rate increase. I remember when Gordon Campbell first was elected. He talked about our electrical rates in B.C., far too low compared to Seattle and Portland. Is he still on that move to increase our rates, our costs?

Joe Easingwood: Where do we stand on that issue these days, Carole?

Carole James: Well, I certainly hear the Premier…. In fact, everyone will see on their hydro bill…. I just looked at mine yesterday. There’s now a new levy, an energy levy on your hydro bill that adds a little bit of cost to your hydro.

The bigger concern, though, that I have is that this government is moving…. And people may have heard the Premier talking about run-of-the-river projects which is clean electricity, a number of projects on rivers that will actually provide us with good, clean electricity. What he’s not telling people is that it’s private companies who are getting the rights to those run-of-the-river. What that will mean is that we’ll be stuck with contracts where those private companies will be able to sell back our power, our electricity to us at higher costs than we could buy it on the market, which will mean that the consumer will pay more.

We’ve said B.C. Hydro should be doing those run-of-the-river. You know, we’ve got this great corporation that is actually there for the taxpayer, that could be involved in those projects, could actually be dealing with the electricity and could keep the rates low for consumers. But instead this government’s given it to private companies. We’ll have no control over those contracts. My real worry, as the caller points out, is that this will mean higher rates because the companies will be walking away with the profit instead of the taxpayers or the consumers.

Joe Easingwood: How many rivers are affected on this, and what will the impact be as far as our total energy production? 

Carole James: Well, I think that’s the worry: no one has really kept track. They’re popping up here, there and everywhere.

The Sunshine Coast in particular, that area, has a huge number of applications in for run-of-the-river. No one’s taking a look and saying…. One project might not have an environmental impact, but if you put eight projects on one river, what impact is that going to have on the salmon, what impact is that going to have on the environment?

Many first nations don’t feel that they’ve been consulted.

So it’s kind of opened the doors in British Columbia to say take our power, take our water, therefore, take our electricity and walk away with it without us, as British Columbians, having control. If there’s one thing I’ve heard from the public it’s that our water and our electricity belong to us; we should have first dibs on a good price on that, and then if we want to make a profit, sell it on the market. But let’s keep it as affordable as we can for consumers.

Joe Easingwood: In other words, sell the excess and keep the rest for use in B.C.

Carole James: Exactly. Or buy at low times and be able to sell at high times, not the opposite — which is what people are worried we’re going to see with these private companies.

Joe Easingwood: Do we have any idea when those rates will start to go up?

Carole James: No idea. And if it’s anything like this government, we probably won’t find out until you see it on your bill at home.

Joe Easingwood: You can join the discussion as well. Good morning.

Mark: Good morning. Ms. James, your run-of-the-river comments are a little inaccurate. First of all not all of “your power”…. I don’t know who you’re referring to. The government’s power?

Joe Easingwood: People’s power.

What is the point you want to make, though, Mark?

Mark: Well, the private companies are putting tens and tens of millions of dollars to build these run-of-the-river power plants because B.C. Hydro doesn’t want to do it. Okay. So they’re doing it. They’re gambling their own money, and they’re paying exorbitant fees to B.C. Hydro to slowly go through the process of approving them and also exorbitant fees to the Environment ministry and other ministries in the B.C. government.

So I don’t understand why Ms. James doesn’t want the B.C. public to have access to more power that is generated by B.C. companies. I just…

Joe Easingwood: Alright. That’s a good question, Mark. What about it, Carole?

Carole James: It’s a very good question. The issue, Mark, is the length of those contracts and the requirement that Hydro will have to buy back that power at a very high rate. The companies are promised to make a profit, which is understandable. They’re private companies; they should make a profit: that’s part of their role as a private company. But do we want private companies having long-term, 15-or-20 year contracts where they can make a profit and sell back our electricity — because it does belong to us, it is our power — sell it back to us at exorbitant rates when B.C. Hydro could have done the investment themselves. They could have still given companies a profit, if that’s the route they wanted to go, and managed to hang onto the contracts and make that power ours. That’s the piece that’s missing here.

Joe Easingwood: Quickly to Sheila.

Sheila: I’ll just make a comment and then hang up. My point is that when private companies run organizations, they’re run more cost-effectively because they do have to make a profit, whereas I feel that the government when it gets involved, the costs can do lots of overruns, and it’s the taxpayer that picks up the tab.

Joe Easingwood: Okay. That’s an excellent point. We’ve got about 30 seconds, Carole.

Carole James: Well, there’s no question that there should be in British Columbia a place for government to be involved and a place for companies to be involved. But I think we’ve all seen the impact.

I use seniors’ care as the example. When the government moved to private, for-profit running seniors’ care, we’ve seen what happens. Seniors get lousy care. In fact, they’re being separated from home communities; care is deteriorating.

Similarly, with power. That belongs to us as British Columbians. Do we want companies making a huge profit and selling back our power? I don’t think so.