“Empowering the province should not disempower Fort St. John,” said Mayor Lori Ackerman after B.C. Hydro offered the city $1 million per year to mitigate the effects of the dam.
Hydro’s “final offer” comes along with news that the company purchased land on 85th Avenue without consulting the city. As that land had been slated for light industrial use, the change could mean millions of dollar in lost tax revenue for the city.
On Saturday, Mayor Lori Ackerman likened negotiations with B.C. Hydro to buying a car and not being allowed to see it.
“The first day you are shown the bumper and the steering wheel. The next day the headlights and tires. At that point you’re asked what you’re willing to pay,” she told the panel. “No one I know buys a car without seeing the entire vehicle.”
The city takes umbrage with B.C. Hydro’s contention that the dam’s construction would come without cumulative effects on services and residual effects on revenues, even after mitigation, and isn’t happy with how negotiations have gone.
“The construction of Site C will be dependent to a large extent on the services of Fort St. John. The city believes that B.C. Hydro’s mitigation plan predominantly transfers project risks to regional and municipal governments and to agencies and ministries,” the mayor said.
A final agreement with B.C. Hydro on construction mitigation is nowhere in sight. Consequently, Ackerman requested that the panel recommend the negotiations proceed under independent supervision.
This comes after the city said B.C. Hydro tabled its “final offer” of $1 million per year to help Fort St. John offset impacts from the dam’s construction.
The city didn’t see the move coming and the mayor called BC Hydro’s “proxy taxation concept” arbitrary, saying it “does not address the true impacts on the city.”
“We must admit that the city was taken totally aback by B.C. Hydro’s final offer strategy,” said Ackerman.
The mayor also expressed surprise over B.C. Hydro’s purchase of 237 acres of land on 85th Avenue. It was land the city said had been slated for light industrial use after boundary expansion. But BC Hydro purchased the property without any consultation or advance notice to the city.
“We consider this to be one of the most significant impacts of Site C on the future development of the city, and a transfer of risks and impacts from B.C. Hydro onto the city and the surrounding area,” Mayor Ackerman said.
It’s a move the city says will cost it $2.8 million in forgone tax revenue over the course of the dam’s construction. That’s because, according to the city, the change in use from light industrial to mining will result in the assessed value dropping from $12.1 million to $460,000. Property tax revenue based on the city’s light industrial tax rate would have been $322,000 per year, as opposed to current projected tax revenue of $12,000 per year.
As a result, the city requested that the panel require B.C. Hydro fully restore the 85th Avenue lands for light industrial use once extraction and construction is complete.
The city also says lost land will, in effect, put a squeeze on what little industrial land remains.
“This is a major implication on future city development” because “237 acres has been taken off the market for at least nine years. For the next nine years, the unavailability of this 237 acres will require the development of other industrial properties at an increased cost” to businesses, stated the mayor.
In the next session, Mayor Ackerman stuck around to address economic and educational development.
She asked that the panel recommend B.C. Hydro partner with Northern Lights College and the University of Northern British Columbia in developing research, training and innovation initiatives in Fort St. John.
The mayor also asked the panel to ensure that prospective employees of BC Hydro and prospective contractors meet job requirements and preference be given to those with a local mailing address.
The mayor wasn’t finished.
She also wants B.C. Hydro’s procurement office, which would link local businesses to Site C opportunities, within the northeast development region.
Next, Mayor Ackerman asked the panel to support the production of a second bridge over the Peace River that “would greatly aid industry, particularly natural gas exploration and development taking place north and south of Fort St. John.”
She said the bridge is needed to provide an alternate route to the Taylor bridge because its steep approaches into the Peace River Valley make it dangerous for heavy trucks, causing accidents and making the area “impassable,” noting the safety and inconvenience effects that result.
“The city requests that the panel require B.C. Hydro to work in partnership with local community and industry to encourage the Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure to construct a permanent bridge connection linking the north and south banks of the Peace River in the vicinity of Site C dam,” she said.
After the mayor spoke, Jennifer Moore of the North Peace Economic Development Commission addressed the panel on a host of challenges, including a shortage of physicians, nurses, the impact on quality of life and agricultural productivity.
“Landowners here should be not be forced to bear the weight of the development of urban areas of our province,” she noted. “What does the loss of agricultural land mean for food security?
It’s the unforeseen cumulative effects, she said, that are often undetected until it’s too late.
Moore expressed concern over highway safety and the loss of productivity due to highway closures.
Gwen Johansson, mayor of Hudson’s Hope, noted that northerners often aren’t the biggest beneficiaries of their sacrifices.
"Those who make the sacrifices, are not the ones who benefit," said Johansson. “There was an Upper Peace Valley and now there isn’t.
“The losses have been accumulative and they have never been accounted for … there is loss after loss.”
Cumulative impacts were a hot topic.
Earlier in the day, Karen Goodings, chair of the Peace River Regional District, said that cumulative impacts take their toll on the health and safety of residents.
She wants the panel to address foregone future economic prosperity from the loss of forestry, tourism, community and food producing capabilities as a result of the dam’s construction and operation.
She also wants the panel to request that B.C. Hydro examine the ability to use natural gas for the production of power, place additional government staff in the region, set up a joint committee funded by BC Hydro to oversee emergencies, commission an independent cost-benefit analysis as to need, cost, economic and social impacts, and commission a study to look at the cumulative impacts of the many and compounding issues that face residents.
She also aired concerns that BC Hydro might be privatized.
“B.C. Hydro is a Crown corporation of the province, so if at any time in the future it is sold, what assurances can the Joint Review Panel put in place to ensure that project commitments made in the EIS are upheld for the Site C project?”
