The Similkameen News Leader
Editorial
NEWS LEADER COMES TO THE RESCUE
We discovered a couple of things the other night.
We were sitting in the Similkameen Valley Planning Society regular meeting in Hedley and watching the Compliance Energy Corporation traveling slide show.
We'd seen it once before when the proposed power plant was a wee little 49-megawatt plan. Now that it's a 56-megawatt project the rules have changed slightly. They actually favour Similkameen Valley residents.
The noise made about the perceived dodging of an Environmental Assessment with the 49mW project put some pressure on the boys with this wood and/or coal plant that becomes energy (that'll power your house) to up the ante so they would have to jump through some more hoops.
You've got to give them credit for making it harder on themselves by going the long way and forgetting about the 49mW shortcut.
Regardless of where you sit on the issue, the fact remains that Similkameen Valley residents can continue to put up roadblocks and hoops and hurdles until it becomes impossible for Compliance to flip the switch.
There is a far easier way to bring the project to a screeching halt if that is your plan.
Put pressure on the Regional District to deny the rezoning application Compliance will eventually file. If the former Similco Mine site is not rezoned for the Compliance project, even after they pass the Environmental Assessment (which is just starting), the project is dead.
Compliance President John Tapics admitted to this at the SVPS meeting.
There's no doubt the project has been a tough sell from the first day they started talking seriously about their plans.
They've also spent a lot of time and energy dealing with local concerns some of them real, many of them imagined.
We figure if they can convince everyone their project would be a valuable asset to the valley, then they should be allowed to prove that.
However, we doubt they'll get that chance.
