LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
- March 17, 2009
To The Editor;
While the spate of protest meetings over Independent Power Projects (IPPs) in British Columbia reflects a growing public concern, citizen demands for environmental review of IPPs do not go to the heart of the matter.
There will indeed be ecological damage, but there are portents of far worse to come.
According to BC Hydro submissions to the BC Utilities Commission, its customers will be paying roughly double current electricity rates for IPP power over the 30-40 year life of the contracts. The 118 licenses already issued (as of January 19), will put more than $30 billion into the pockets of the private owners, the majority of whom do not live in BC.
Small wonder IPPs have become a gold rush, with something like 700 applications filed for licenses. For $10,000-$15,000 investors can buy water rights that will produce electricity worth $1 million a year. BC Hydro must buy and distribute IPP power but doesn't fix the price. That is set by contracts that are closed to the public, kept secret by the BC government.
When the contracts expire, the people of BC will have paid all the costs of IPP generating stations but will own nothing. The private companies will retain the plants and first dibs on the rights to the water - our water - and be free to sell the power to the highest bidder, American or Canadian.
Thus we lose both energy security and the cheap power that fuels BC's economy. Electricity is currently selling in San Francisco for four times what we are paying. That's our IPP future.
When the Squamish-Lillooet Regional District smelled this rat behind the baseboard and voted 8-1 to oppose the Ashlu River IPP, the Campbell government passed Bill 30, barring all local governments from the IPP approval process.
Environmental review won't change any of this. But the next provincial election just might.
- Michael Poole, Halfmoon Bay, BC
Open letter to Alex Atamanenko:
I'm so glad to see that you are speaking out strongly for those who have found themselves out of work and unable to collect EI. This has been on my mind constantly since the budget was put forward.
Why does our federal government clamp down so hard on individuals?
They impose the most stringent rules on people who are scared out of their wits because they're dangerously close to the abyss and could lose everything they have. To impose a waiting period on people who have just lost their jobs is heartless to say the least. An awful lot of people are living one month away from the streets. How is our government going to deal with this crisis? Make more jails?
Wouldn't it be easier to give them EI rather than pay off GM, Ford and Chrysler for the umpteenth time?
People are forced to go into debt or lose what they have before they are given any help by our government.
Then it's so little that they are kept in poverty while they are on it and then booted off, sometimes before they've paid back the money they had to borrow while they were waiting for EI to start.
To get back on EI the hours of work necessary to get it again are unreasonable, particularly in these times.
Because our government has been infiltrated by big corporations, and advised by think-tanks that have an agenda of their own and who spread the idea that people who are on
'the dole' are lazy bums, as well as having media who subtly or not so subtly entrench their message, we'll have to squawk loudly to see any changes that are serious.
I'm continuously appalled at our government's callousness and lack of compassion. We can only thank our lucky stars for having representatives such as you and your party to speak out for individuals.
Sincerely,
Donna Stocker, Cawston
