Earlier this week, Damien and I went to Powell River to learn about Plutonic Power’s project in Bute Inlet. We will also be attending the company's public comment meeting in Campbell River on Feb 2, then hosting our own event in Courtenay on Feb 3 from 7-9 PM at the Florence Filberg Centre, seeing as the company and government EAO have not deemed it necessary to hold a meeting in that community.

Here is a bit of a summary of the project:

Proponent:  Plutonic Hydro Inc. / General Electric would have a 60% controlling interest
Number of creeks dammed: 17
Total Annual Output: 2,980 GWh
Total Estimated Project Cost: $4 billion, making it the largest single private power project in Canada
Estimated Annual Gross Revenue: Approximately $300,000,000 - 40 year contract including indexed escalation = approx. $16 billion
Wildlife affected: grizzly bear, salmon, resident salmonids.
Power lines: 428 km
Roads: 265 km
Bridges: 100 bridges
Production: 1027MW
Total crown land grants required for all of the above: Up to 45,000 hectares

Now a few notes of comparison with Site C:

It would only require only approx. 8,000 hectares of crown land in total (vs. up to 45,000 for the Bute) but would deliver significantly more power throughout the year (4,500 GWh vs. 2,980 GWh from the Bute project) and would be much more valuable "firm power"  The cost of power generated from Site C would be about half of that generated by the Bute project.

Plutonic's proposed project, then, is bigger than Site “C”, indeed the biggest private hydropower project in the country.

Let me make it absolutely clear that Save Our Rivers Society is not in favour of Site C. There is no need for Site C. It’s instructive, however, to note that BC Hydro is acting like they want it to proceed. We will vehemently oppose such a move. Having said that, the Site C situation does present an interesting contrast between what Hydro does to get public input and theCampbell government’s approach for private power proposals.

The Plutonic Power project in Bute Inlet – remember it’s bigger and far more environmentally intrusive than Site C - has involved NO, ZERO public hearings on the merits of the project. It will have had three on the “terms of reference” for the Environmental Assessment Office but Zilch on whether it should be done in the first place. Premier Gordon Campbell makes those sorts of decisions all by himself and they somehow, by the most amazing of circumstances, they always favour his corporate friends.

BC Hydro, on the other hand has had 48, yes 48 public hearings where the public can question the merits of the proposal and they plan more!
 
It becomes more and more obvious that the Campbell government doesn’t give a damn about the public.

If the government won’t change then we’ll just have to change the government.

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