Did you know our province now imports 25 per cent of our electricity from elsewhere? And, according to documents filed with the B.C. Utilities Commission, in the last 12-month reporting period, this came at a cost of $1.38 billion.
It is shocking to me that the BC NDP government chooses to purchase power from other jurisdictions, particularly when it is not as clean as the power we could be generating right here in Cariboo-Chilcotin.
Much of the power we imported came from the U.S., where it was generated by burning fossil fuels, and Alberta, where it is largely sourced from natural gas.
Here in the Cariboo, the Atlantic Power Williams Lake plant produces enough energy to power 50,000 homes. It is fuel.ed by wood waste fibre from the sawmill and logging industries.
The Williams Lake plant was established in the early 1990s, but its future is shaky under a BC NDP government that has overseen eight years of permit delays, mill closures and curtailments. No sawmills means no fibre, which means no power generation at the Williams Lake facility.
For those who don’t know, Atlantic Power is the single largest taxpayer in the city of Williams Lake, and it directly and indirectly employs approximately 130 locals, including the contracted truck drivers and grinding operators.
Under B.C.’s Clean Energy Act, which passed in 2010, we are obligated as a province to achieve electricity self-sufficiency. By 2030, we must also generate 100 per cent of the electricity in B.C. from clean or renewable resources, and reduce waste by encouraging the use of waste heat, biogas and biomass. This is what Atlantic Power already does.
The province also has a mandate to encourage economic development, job creation, and job retention, particularly in First Nations and rural communities.
BC Hydro and the government should be collaborating with Atlantic Power to devise a solution that will allow the company to continue to operate, and not cease operations in early 2025 as is the current case. Seeing as the Williams Lake plant is a biomass-fired facility, you would think the NDP government would be putting in just a little more effort to find a solution with Atlantic Power. Instead, they are seemingly absent.
The BC NDP government must fully understand that access to fibre – not just for Atlantic Power, but for the entire industry – is in a crisis.
BC Hydro expects demand for electricity will increase by 15 per cent or more by 2030. The NDP is convinced that by then, under their plan, we will purchase only electric vehicles and warm our homes solely with heat pumps. Other appliances and vehicles will become phased out and no longer available as new purchases. This means more electricity consumption.
If I could have just one Christmas wish, it would be that Premier David Eby acknowledge that Cariboo-Chilcotin has the capability to provide the province with much-needed reliable, base-load, renewable energy – if only he would stop holding us back.
