by Gary Diers and Thomas Rankin

The rivers of BC are public property

In 1963, the late US President John F. Kennedy reached out to all people in an emergency broadcast, calling upon everyone to protect freedom and independence. He began his short speech: “The very word secrecy is repugnant in a free and open society and we are, as a people, inherently and historically opposed to secret societies, to secret oaths and to secret proceedings.”
In the province of BC, “secretive” is how the Liberal government of Gordon Campbell is known. The entire public electric energy asset of the people of British Columbia – the public source of freedom and wealth in BC and more valuable than Mideast oil – is in jeopardy. From the beginning of the secretive process, including the taking of all rivers and placing exceedingly lucrative public purchase orders currently totalling tens of billions in the hands of global corporations, it has met with serious opposition.
People representing Cascade Falls (Christina Lake), Nechako River (Kitimat-Alcan) and Ashlu River (Squamish) have protested; now, an injunction has been issued against the people at Glacier Howser Creeks in the Kootenay Mountains of southeastern BC, compelling them to ask, “Will you fight for our water and for our freedom?” British Columbians have fought for the last few years to protect their local rivers from the bullying by big business and the BC government, which has imposed laws and removed public rights allowing unobstructed access by private corporations to the public’s wind, water and thermal assets.
The entire renewable energy asset of the people of British Columbia is being quietly and effectively licensed away while the public is secretly being burdened with tens of billions of dollars in long-term premium retail debt to buy power from private companies at more than 20 times the public cost power generation. Accusations of fraud have been tabled at the BC Utilities Commission where Premier Gordon Campbell is making a second attempt to place a billion dollar public purchase order in the hands of Alcan for electricity that Alcan wants to sell at a profit of 1,430 percent.
The government of BC is guilty and its corporate handlers are collaborating in taking exclusive control of the public’s energy assets, water resources, wind and thermal energy resources. Good, honest, hardworking Canadians are being arrested and pushed aside in attempting to protect their rivers and their public property.
Yet both the regional population and local governments decided that the Ashlu River (www.ashlu.info), “Wild Spirit Place” of the Coast Salish and BC’s most southwestern home to grizzly bears, must be saved instead of destroyed.
The government claims there are no dams on the 535 rivers they are giving away by creating a water power licence to transfer control of our rivers while spending limitless taxpayers’ dollars for exclusive corporate power profits and long-term loss of public control. But the photo accompanying this article, taken in October, clearly shows a dam.
Every local government in BC is now subjected to a new law – BILL 30 (June 2006) – making it impossible for local governments to say no to a private river power project. Premier Gordon Campbell has stripped the people of BC of their rights and given Ledcor Industries the Ashlu River for renewable terms of 40 years, along with a public purchase order exceeding 100 million dollars to pay Ledcor to build its dams and long tunnels and install generators to make money/power from our river.
The time for talking is finished. We are calling upon all people to alert everyone about the situation of the theft of our rivers and energy assets so that we may stop it and regain control and join together in protecting our Canadian rivers and the freedom and independence we love.
Become aware of the private power behind FortisBC Inc, BC Hydro and the government of BC. See the Google Earth interactive map at www.SaveOurRivers.ca and save your rivers.

Glacier/Howser: Kootenay wilderness at risk

It has been a wild month in the wild West Kootenay following the publication of Reclaim our stolen rivers in last month’s Common Ground, which included the article about the proposed Glacier/Howser hydroelectric development project.
If October was any indication, kayakers may be very busy protesting our endangered rivers. Wild rivers are what kayakers are all about and in their own dramatic way they are showing us just how precious our rivers are. Fearless paddlers from the Borderline Boaters club ran Howser Creek canyon to protest this private proposal to divert huge amounts of water out of the Howser and Glacier creeks.
Equally brave are the Grabowsky family and their friends who blockaded the Glacier Creek road for almost four months in protest of the private project. Other than grizzly bears, wolverines, mountain goats and bull trout, the Grabowskys are the only residents of Glacier Creek and they feel a great need to protect the valley and its inhabitants. The life-giving cool waters of Glacier Creek flow through their property and it might be too much for them to watch heavy industrial traffic take its toll as the water level severely diminishes, wondering if the upstream dam will hold when the great ice chunks flow in the spring.
In the draft Terms of Reference for the “environmental assessment,” Purcell Green Power Inc. (subsidiary of Axor Group Inc.) lists 83 potential stakeholders. The Grabowsky family is nowhere to be seen on this list. In fact, no mention is made of them anywhere in the 100+ page document. While Axor may have been ignored the Grabowskys in this official document, the family was certainly not ignored on October 16 when the company went to the Supreme Court seeking an injunction against the protesters. The court order was quickly and harshly instituted by the judge and the protest disbanded.
While the protests were raging, First Nations became clearer in their stance against the destruction proposed by Axor Group, Inc. Marilyn James, spokesperson for the Sinixt people (also not listed as a stakeholder) is now taking a strong stand against the project while it appears that the Kinbasket Shuswap are also coming onside.
Craig Williams of www.ippwatch.info (check it out!) informed us that yet two more nearby large creeks are newly endangered: Poplar Creek and Cascade Creek flow into the Lardeau River where the world famous Gerrard rainbow trout spawn. On September 19, Glacier Power BC received licence applications for hydroelectric development on these sensitive rivers.

A PowerPoint presentation showing the beauty of the wilderness in the Glacier and Howser Creek region is in the works. Watch for it at www.hydrofacts.bc.ca