“Don’t lose that Toyota!”
We’d first noticed the silver Toyota on the main drag in downtown Quesnel. We’d spotted it again in Prince George, just ahead of us at a red light. A red canoe sat on the rack, and the rear bumper was a collage of environmental stickers. “Bet you they’re going to the Paddle,” I said. “Let’s keep them in sight and ask them when they stop for gas.”
We weren’t exactly equipped to be mounting a hot pursuit. My husband Tom, was in the back seat nursing a broken arm. At the wheel, our friend Caspar spurned Premier Clark’s new speed limit and kept the needle to a steady 110. As for me, I didn’t even drive.
We were headed to Fort St. John to take part in the Paddle for the Peace, an annual gathering hosted by Treaty 8 First Nations and Peace Valley Environment Association to mobilize opposition to the proposed Site C Dam. For Treaty 8 First Nations, Site C would be a replay of the devastation they experienced in the aftermath of the construction of the W.A.C. Bennett and Peace Canyon dams which wiped out traditional hunting grounds and contaminated fish with mercury from decaying trees. The third dam, Site C, would destroy the remaining wildlife corridor, flood some of the best farmland in the province, and obliterate hundreds of First Nations gravesites and spiritual sites, in a crass display of colonialism that doesn’t seem to have changed much since the days of W.A.C. Bennett.
Opposition
Local farmers and ranchers stand with their First Nations neighbours in opposing the dam. But many are concerned that the remoteness of the region may make it easier for the BC government to turn the Peace into a sacrifice zone. About half of the BC population haven’t even heard of Site C, according to a BC Hydro poll. Of those that have heard of it, how many are taken in by BC Hydro’s “clean energy” spin? Would conditional support dry up if people knew what is at stake?
Like most Vancouver Islanders, neither Tom nor Caspar nor I had ever ventured farther north than Williams Lake. The first sight of the Peace Valley, from the top of the hill just past Hudson’s Hope, stunned us into silence. The Peace is utterly unlike any other river I’ve seen. In the slanting evening light, the water was a deep blue, not milky-green like the glacier-born rivers of the Coast Mountains. The big brothers of the south, the Fraser and the Thompson, rush to the Pacific by the shortest and fastest route; their northern sister tarries and meanders on her way to the Arctic, the deeper to embrace the valley to which she gives life. Rich alluvial soils nurture agricultural fields, wetlands and huge stands of cottonwoods, each a hunting perch for its own bald eagle. A number of small islands, layers of silt and shale rock carved by the current into fantastic shapes, shelter calving moose, elk and deer.
Reasons Be Dammed
Destroy all this, and for what? The rationale for building Site C seems to be constantly shifting. BC Hydro first said that BC needs the power to meet growing domestic demand, despite the fact that the province is a net energy exporter and demand has been trending downward. Then, during the Joint Review Panel hearings, BC Hydro came up with another scenario – exporting power to California. Meanwhile, Premier Clark is sticking to her liquified natural gas (LNG) mantra, even though Site C would barely power a single LNG plant.
The Joint Review Panel would have none of it: in its final report released in May, the Panel found that BC Hydro not only had failed to prove the need for the power but had not given due consideration to alternatives, such as geothermal and energy conservation. The panel concluded that Site C would have significant adverse effects on wildlife and on First Nations, and called for a more comprehensive assessment of cumulative impacts of multiple projects (fracking, oil, mining, logging) in the Peace region.
What will it take to shift the BC government on this one? Treaty 8 are standing their ground: West Moberly Chief Roland Wilson told Premier Clark that she will have to give up on Site C if she wants First Nations cooperation on LNG. The farmers and ranchers are giving it their all, testifying before the panel, speaking to the media and helping organize the hugely successful Paddle for the Peace. They say the Peace Valley has borne enough of the burden of hydroelectric development for this province and must not suffer further harms!
The North is showing up. It is time for us southerners to stand up and be counted. Help stop Site C Dam!
Take action at www.stopsitec.org
Learn more at www.peacevalley.ca
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Ana Simeon is a Peace Valley campaigner for Sierra Club BC
