This summer, aboriginal communities in the Fraser Canyon held job fairs for the Kwoiek Creek hydroelectric project. Construction began a few weeks ago on the $180-million run-of-river project on a tributary to the Fraser River just south of Lytton.
Such clean-energy projects are sprouting up across the province – the Kanaka Bar Indian band is one of 125 in B.C. that have a stake in producing power. The Kanaka band is a partner in the project with the independent power company Innergex II. Its members will have first crack at the roughly 80 construction jobs it will bring over the next two years, helping to relieve high unemployment in the area.
Job creation, carbon-neutral energy production, native band capacity-building: The project hit all the right notes when the province granted environmental approval back in March of 2009. A news release announcing the project approval at that time underscored the fact that BC Hydro was importing about 15 per cent of its electricity, "much of it from traditional coal-fired plants in the United States and Alberta. These plants are a large source of CO2 emissions, which are contributing to climate change." The Kwoiek Creek project would help the province replace the dirty power with clean energy produced locally.
This week, a panel representing native bands, climate scientists and independent power producers warned that projects like this – and the government's lofty climate-change agenda that fostered their growth – may be paved over by Premier Christy Clark's own agenda.
Ms. Clark says she is committed to the greenhouse gas emission targets established by he who must not be named (but let's say it anyway: former premier Gordon Campbell).
But his successor rarely mentions his green agenda – putting B.C. on the forefront of tackling climate change. Ms. Clark wants to focus on jobs and families.
In at least three instances, Ms. Clark looks poised to take apart Mr. Campbell's green legacy:
The clean energy powerhouse
A little more than a year ago, B.C.'s Clean Energy Act was introduced. It was designed to be a magnet for billions of dollars of investment in the green electricity sector. By attracting private sector dollars, B.C. would have energy to sell "without risk or cost to B.C. taxpayers," the energy minister of the day said. Part of the package required BC Hydro to achieve self-sufficiency by 2016 – even in severe drought conditions. Hydro would have to buy capacity from independent power producers to meet the targets, but would be able to sell any excess to meet market demand for clean energy.
Ms. Clark's government is expected this fall to jettison the requirement for BC Hydro to ensure it has enough electricity supply to meet its domestic demand even during a drought. The policy, set in legislation, was deemed too costly to consumers, who are facing high rate increases.
The carbon tax
The province is also throwing open Mr. Campbell's carbon tax for public discussion. In May, Ms. Clark released an open letter pledging to keep the tax on fossil fuels in place until 2012. But she also signalled that it needs to be overhauled after that: "In the future, I am open to considering using the carbon tax to support regional initiatives such as public transit."
It's another landmark Campbell initiative – his government took intense heat over the new tax from both businesses and consumers. Now Ms. Clark wants to rethink it "not in a vacuum, but by working together with British Columbian families, communities and businesses." That promised consultation hasn't formally started, but could be rolled in with the annual budget hearings launched this week.
The Pacific Carbon Trust
In November, 2007, Mr. Campbell unveiled an ambitious commitment to cut energy consumption significantly in 6,500 public-sector buildings – in offices of the provincial government and Crown corporations, in schools, universities, colleges, hospitals and social housing. Today, schools and hospitals have to buy carbon offsets to meet his carbon-neutral targets for the public sector. The offsets are bought from the Pacific Carbon Trust, a B.C. Crown agency that gives the money mostly to private-sector initiatives that reduce greenhouse-gas emissions.
Now Environment Minister Terry Lake says the Pacific Carbon Trust needs to be reformatted so that schools and hospitals aren't paying into the fund to offset their emissions while private companies, like gas producer Encana, get the cash to invest in pollution reduction. Initially, the province offered public institutions cash to help them pay for conservation measures that would assist them in reaching the Campbell government's carbon neutral targets. But that cash has dried up. "The program has run its course and we need to look at the Pacific Carbon Trust and whether there is a way to create a fund so the money going in from these public institutions makes its way back to public institutions."
On their own, any of these Campbell policies could reasonably be tweaked, but put together, Ms. Clark's commitment to climate change looks like it has been pushed to the backburner. Far more profitable, her pollsters must be whispering, to focus on jobs and the economy. But for the Kanaka people – and others who are gaining jobs in their communities as a result of Mr. Campbell's green agenda – Ms. Clark may be missing the point.
Justine Hunter