Buried on Page 2 of the Vancouver Province today, October 20, is a headline “Province halts major transmission system inquiry." This means that, when you look behind the Campbell government’s never abating never ending fog about energy, this means that the BC Utilities Commission, the public’s watchdog will not carry on its independent investigation into the Campbell government’s horrific Energy Plan.

This Plan took away BC Hydro’s right to create new energy and gave that job to the private sector. It also forced BC Hydro into making sweetheart “use or pay” contracts with private producers which gives the term “sweetheart deal” a whole new meaning.

Evidently the light has gone in the Premier’s office and he has, at long last, seen the consequences of this deal.

The consequence for BC Hydro is Grade I arithmetic. It can’t avoid for long the fact that either it will go bankrupt if it must pay to the private sector double what it can sell it for in the US or charge British Columbia usurious electricity rates.

Why does that happen?

Because the vast bulk of private power comes when we don’t need it! Private plants develop their power during he Spring run-off, the very time BC Hydro has full reservoirs with plenty of power to meet its demands. The BC government have been very silent on this matter and much of the blame falls upon the NDP who didn’t understand the this issue during the May election and didn’t press it. To this day only a handful of NDP MLAs have a clue about the Energy Policy.

The consequences of the Energy Policy are that either  Hydro must go broke because it cannot pay the billions of dollars it has in obligations to private power or it must substantially raise its rates to BC industry and homeowners to cover off its losses. If the latter is the option, you and I will be subsidizing Hydro exports to the US – big time!

Both policies will hit British Columbians very hard indeed. The marvelous power creation we have in this province of ours, BC Hydro, faces the dilemma “do we bankrupt our company or do we bankrupt the public?

The BC Utilities Commission has stepped on Mr. Campbell’s corns and the premier is thrashing around to find an easy way out. But there isn’t one. BCUC has already found that the Campbell Energy Policy is “not in the province’s best interests”. For Premier Campbell to allow BCUC to continue to overturn rocks and find government crawlies is not on he’s shut it down.

The government has been lying about this issue from the outset. Two statements suffice to prove that. One Campbell has stated that BC needs this new energy which is utterly false. Then he says the private power companies ruining our rivers, clear-cutting for roads and transmission lines will make up this mythical need we have for more energy. This is horse buns for as noted above, we certainly wouldn’t be able to use private power which is of no help to British Columbians because of the time it’s produced.

Campbell has shut down the public’s sharp eye on power production and has turned that obligation over to himself and the nit wits that make up his government.

The chickens are indeed coming home to roost.

What the head rooster does now will be interesting – and very costly – to see.

Rafe Mair is a member of the Save Our Rivers Society Board of Advisors

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Damien Gillis’ video out of Trondheim, Norway’s recent Aquaculture trade show demonstrates the problem we British Columbians have which simply stated is this – neither of the two major political parties give a fiddler’s fart for the west coast fishery. Fisheries and Oceans Minister Gail Shea simply doesn’t concern herself with our plight and I’ve heard nothing from Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff that he indicates that he even knows that we have fish in this neck of the woods.

This is not an unusual situation. The last Fishery Minister who knew his brief was John Fraser who, unhappily, did not stay in the ministry long enough to locate the private loo.

When I was Environment Minister for BC many moons ago I researched the history of Ottawa and the Pacific Fishery. This history is festooned with short term solutions that lasted only until the next crisis. There were reports and studies galore.

Just one example. At one point the fishery was being over fished. The Minister then decided that there were too many boats chasing too many fish so he organized a buy back of licenses. The minister didn’t reckon with the ingenuity of man for in no time flat the boats that remained increased their capacity and we were back where we started!

The political bottom line is this – we will either elect the Tories, who won’t change, or the Liberals who won’t change or the NDP which has no power to change.

Next stop – a dam on the Fraser north of Lytton because there are no fish values to be concerned about.

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There is a coming together of environmentalists unprecedented in my memory and much of the impetus will come from those opposed to fish farms and to the government rivers policy. This is a natural alliance since both deal with rights to water and healthiness of fish although the emphasis might be different from group to group – indeed amongst individuals.

Coalitions are difficult to put together and even more difficult to keep together and wise environmentalists know that. The way to go is find common ground and common assets that can be to the benefit of all. I believe that opponents to fish farms and private power can do much in common with the Wilderness Committee which has done so much to help to help in the rivers cause and against fish farms over the past couple of years. I believe a new umbrella group called the Salmon Circle will play a great role as will the BC Wildlife Federation. If the Campbell autocracy believes the election decided the environmental issues he’s in for a very big surprise.

Oddly enough, in a backhanded way, the victory of the Liberals on May 12 last has made organizing opposition easier. Before May 12 Liberals who opposed fish farms and private power were loath to support the NDP and either held their noses and voted Liberal or stayed at home. This constitutes a large mass of potential support for our cause.

The issues are not complicated though the government wants you to think they are.

The sea lice from salmon farms are destroying Pink, Chum and Sockeye smolts. This is no longer a scientific issue and hasn’t been one for some years.

Private power destroys rivers, their fish and the general ecology they maintain; the power produced is mostly at a time we don’t need it thus will be sold to the US. Because of the sweetheart deals BC Hydro has been forced to make with private power companies they will have to export at a huge loss and therefore are condemned to bankruptcy; private power has virtually no impsct on BC’s power requirements.

In both cases the government, its ministers and the premier are lying through their teeth and that is very easy to prove.

On the power side the government and their Charlie McCarthy’s make out that increasing the capacity of the gas powered Burrard Thermal will damage the environment. If anyone were suggesting that Burrard Thermal in fact produce more power that would be another matter. But no one, including the BC Utilities is considering increasing the output of Burrard Thermal. This is how the government deceives us. Campbell says BCUC wants Burrard Thermal to expand so we’re going to get rid of it making it appear that they’re good little boys and girls fighting for the climate.

It’s essential to know what Burrard Thermal does. Where I live, Lions Bay, we often have power outages for several days so many have bought a small gas fired generator to give them power when they can’t get it from their power switch. Isn’t that just prudence? Would Mr. Campbell say that we simply freeze to death (these power outages nearly always follow foul weather). The generators aren’t used when the power switch works and similarly as a province we use Burrard Thermal when normal power isn’t fully available. The government’s position and that of its lackeys want to deceive the public.

It’s the same with the fish farmers. One of the raw lies put out by industry and government alike is that the lice attacking the wild salmon are not the same kind as in fish farms.

Here’s what Alexandra Morton says about this allegation  …

Fisheries and Oceans Canada’s statements regarding sea lice, sockeye and fish farms are increasingly misguiding.  … the statement is not only untrue it is just plain stupid given that Marine Harvest posts their sea lice data on the web.

Yes, there are two species of sea lice predominately infecting salmon on this coast, Lepeophtheirus salmonis, the salmon louse which is the largest, and Caligus clemensi, a species that can exist on species of fish other than salmon which makes Caligus a little harder to track.  We have found that young sockeye are most often infected with Caligus, although we see Lepeophtheirus on them as well.

Both Caligus and Lepeophtheirus are recorded in Marine Harvest’s sea lice counts and posted on their website …if you go to its site you can click on each far site and get pdfs such as I have attached.  It becomes immediately apparent that farm fish have both species of lice.”

With more and more people examining these issues not from a party political point of but with the eyes of British Columbians wanting to preserve our heritage, government and industry deceit becomes more and more obvious.

In 1983 a freshly elected Socred Government ran on a restraint program winning a near landslide. When they brought in “restraint” legislation a large portion of the population objected to such an extent that the government had to back down.

In 2009 the issues are far, far graver than in 1983 and when the public rises in anger, as it will, I predict there will very substantial changes indeed.

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The summer has been a time for reflection for me. It was a tough election to lose and I think all involved on the losing side have had much to reflect upon. Now is the time to plan.

It doesn’t take the brains of a Mensa to see that the environmental movement is split into many ways. I’m not talking of the shameful departure of Dr David Suzuki but of the splits within the movement that have long existed.

Those splits, often encouraged by governments, are not bad things in themselves. There are countless points of contact between environmentalists and issues to be concerned about. I must admit that until recent months I thought we should be trying to put together a coalition but I see now it can’t work.

We at Save Our Rivers Society were blessed indeed to have as allies in the recent fight, the Wilderness Committee and their spokespersons, Joe Foy and Gwen Barlee with whom I shared many a speaker’s podium. But WC has a broad mandate and it might have been that other priorities would have made it impossible for them to fight our fight as comrades. Similarly, with our mandate at SORS we might find that our resources were stretched too thin to help WC in a particular issue. But this makes this point – what if environmental activists simply got one coordinating point so that, for example, when WC would like support, the coordinator could canvas other groups and see what help they could spare.

Here’s a hypothetical way it might work. Suppose the Wilderness Committee was unable to commit as a group to SORS fight because they had too many irons in the fire. A coordinator would be able to call WC and say – "here are rallies we’ve put together. Can you spare Joe or Gwen Barlee for a speech on such and such a day?" In other words, a coordinator would not in any way interfere with the mandates of other organizations or connote a coalition or amalgamation – integration might be the better word – but would provide sort of a clearing house so that we can all help each other out when we’re able to and to the extaent we can and still satisfy our respective mandates.

The next four years will be the roughest in my memory. All of us in the environmental field will be fighting both governments on a number of battlegrounds. What a plus for us if every army in the field could get a bit of help here and there.

This does in fact happen but not, in my view, on a wide enough basis.

An idea whose time has come?

Or another dud?

At the very least it’s worth looking at.

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The rivers issue is going to put Gordon Campbell and his government inside a box where the sides unceasingly close in. It can’t help but do that as more and more British Columbians understand what has happened.

Campbell was lucky as hell that in the last election the NDP were unable to make this their issue with the result that only in a few constituencies was it an issue at all. That may have changed already.

This is a policy that has no good side to it. If it weren’t so serious one might laugh at Guy Dauncey of BCSEA’s silly little word games and consoling thought that even if this power isn’t staying home that at least it will help Americans meet their environmental standards.

Often one says “shorn of all else” but I can’t say that because “all else” is fatal piece by piece. Perhaps I can say that the most galling part for British Columbians is that a decision they had no hand in making is going to create power almost exclusively for export. It’s here the Campbell government – and yes the Premier especially – have lied through their teeth. Creating the false impression that BC was an importer of power and needed to do something to become self sufficient by 2016 Campbell told people that this power would fix it all up for us. We are not net importers and even if we needed power, private power is scarcely going to be helpful. Think on that friends – Premier Campbell told us that these private power deals were going to create all the energy we need when in fact nearly all of it’s going to the US so they don’t have to screw up their rivers and streams. Our money, our environment, our power company along with the private power are all going south!

Just as he assured us he’s never sell BC Rail he told us private power would be for British Columbians. Perhaps as Churchill did to avoid calling a prime minister something unparliamentary I will content myself by observing that Campbell’s statements are terminological inexactitudes!

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We at Save Our Rivers Society are girding up our loins for the continued battle to save our rivers from the capitalist predation being undertaken with all the help Campbell & Co can give.

I’ve been asked given the Liberals won the last election giving them four more years to do as they wish, we don’t just fold our tent and walk away? The answer is that we can’t – and neither can you!  We will fight every inch of the way to fight every private power exercise that comes along.

This will not be easy. I don’t believe that Campbell will stay his term. With the Winter Olympics behind him I believe he’ll resign. If I’m right, since Campbell won't need the Liberal Party any more it won’t bother him if they hit the ditch in 2013.

Is that being fair? Campbell hasn’t given any inkling that he wants to leave politics has he?

I think he has in several ways.

He clearly doesn’t care that with his policies, BC Hydro will be ruined before 2013 because he won’t be where it matters. He clearly doesn’t care about our environment because he won’t be around when his party is called to account.

Those who have followed my checkered career will know of my intense dislike of the CanWest dailies in our town, The Vancouver (Seriously West Coast) Sun and The Province. They are simply lousy papers who play down stories contrary to the government’s interest or policy and save their criticisms until after an election is safely behind them.

If you took Wednesday’s Toronto Globe and Mail – the National Edition - and looked at the front page, left column you would have seen this headline – “Green Premier’s Agenda hits snag as energy plan rejected” with the sub headline “Commission says Campbell’s initiative not public interest”. This was followed by a full article by the eminent Mark Hume outlining how the British Columbia Utilities Commission (BCUC) has roundly criticized the private rivers scheme of the Campbell government.

I’m not going to deal with the issues themselves today – the Save Our Rivers Society will issue a press release in the next few days.

This story is a block buster with shares of Plutonic, one of the major players in the private energy scam, taking a sizeable plunge. The Globe and Mail knows it’s a major story so let’s see what the local CanWest papers had to say.

The Province told us about hoods on bail (this story has taken on the status of regular feature with this paper), the sale of the “fast ferries”, a story about Translink and the Ferries and the perils of driving while using a cell phone, There was the start of a housing project, two full pages about the heat wave, a Canadian killed in Puerto Rico and how you should take your garbage with you (including unopened CanWest papers one assumes). We have now reached the op-ed page and nary a word about the BCUC ruling!

As we move on, we have HST and restaurants, guilty letter carriers and Hutterites and photo ID. On and on it goes, a big story on tanning beds on A 20 and we’re through the News section. Knowing this paper’s penchant for burying stories I even checked out the Sports section.

The Vancouver (seriously West Coast) Sun is the same except that Vaughn Palmer, who usually comments upon the news and doesn’t report it, uses the story for his column and obviously is checking back tears as he relates this tragic condemnation of his Liberal government.

So here we have it – The Globe and Mail, on the  front page, not in the BC section, fully reports this blockbuster story while it doesn’t outrank lost dogs and losing BC Lions quarterbacks with "seriously west coast" CanWest. 

I said I won’t deal with the finer points because Save Our Rivers Society (www.saveourrivers.ca – check out its Board of Advisors) - has people much more knowledgeable that I to do this. I will, however, give you a political opinion.

The Campbell government has based its very existence on the its rivers policy which is a shameful sham. It encourages the destruction of our rivers beyond repair so that large international companies can produce power which MUST be purchased by BC Hydro at prices 2 to 3 times the value on the spot market. Because this power is mostly produced during the spring run off when BC Hydro had fill reservoirs and lots of power, private power it's all but useless for British Columbia customers and will be exported at a huge loss by BC Hydro. The policy is madness and if you doubt me, read Dr. John Calvert’s book, Liquid Gold. (Dr. Calvert is on the SORS Board of Advisors.) Given these facts no intelligent observers, as are the members of BCUC, could fail to see that the Government’s rivers policy was a colossal mistake.

Now here’s what happens. Because BCUC offered some positive words about the Burrard Thermal Plant and Site “C” the government will hop on these to justify legislating the BCUC decision out of existence. I need hardly tell you how irresponsible this will be. Whatever other things the BCUC said, the condemnation of the private power scheme stands on its own. The government knows that BC Hydro can indeed phase out Burrard Thermal (which is only used in an emergency) and make up power needs by conservation, upgrades of current generators, new generators and, by exercising our powers under the Columbia River Treaty, repatriating power we send for to the US.

This issue is a political one and it involves a government and a premier with an overweening sense of infallibility which allows them holding their noses but with otherwise straight faces, protecting not the citizens but its corporate paymasters. Rather than do what is right Campbell will not permit BCUC to embarrass him. To him and his crowd, loss of face ranks far ahead of the public good.

It's a marvelous victory for all who laboured so hard to expose and end an atrocious policy but it won’t last because – and you can bet on this – Campbell will legislate his power policy so that Plutonic’s shares will rise again at the expense of us the voters.

To this government good policy is trumped by his policy even if it's disastrous - which this is.

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The Campbell government is a collection of dissemblers such that you can’t take anything they say seriously. The so-called “harmonized sales tax” is the latest example. And isn’t “harmonized” such a lovely warm and fuzzy word? In fact it is nothing more than a raising of the sales tax but to tell people that requires honesty, a commodity sadly lacking in this morality challenged government."Harmonized" is rather like the phrase "green and renewable" used by those destroying our rivers.

This lack of acquaintance with the truth goes back to the beginning when Campbell took the moratorium off fish farms in 2001, Since that time he has consistently denied the evidence that open cage fish farms are a menace to our wild fishery. As each independent study came out, from the best scientists in the business, Campbell would peddle deceit saying that scientists supported his policy which is a terminological inexactitude, as Churchill called such things when Parliamentary practice forbade him to use the word “lie”.