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Vol. 89 Issue 14 • Wednesday, APRIL 4, 2012 • www.arrowlakesnews.com • 250-265-3823 • $1.25 Includes HST
BC Hydro hands wharf projects off to Columbia Power By Claire Paradis Arrow Lakes News
Audrey Repin, Director of Stakeholder Relations and Communications for Columbia Power, came to the March 25 Nakusp council meeting to outline what would be happening next with plans to replace the wharf in Nakusp. Columbia Power Corporation is taking the Nakusp wharf project as well as ones in Edgewood and Anderson Point over from BC Hydro, because “ the relationship with the community is key,” according to Repin. Last fall, the sister Crown Corporations agreed that CPC already had many of the necessary relationships in place to get the projects to completion. At this point in the projects’ handover, Columbia Power is discovering what commitments BC Hydro made, and what challenges they faced, Repin said. Water levels are the major concern, she said. The lowest annual water levels occur mid-March to mid-April, so this is when CPC is looking to carry out construction in 2013. Right now, CPC is looking at environmental approvals, sourcing materials and pulling tender pack-
ages together, the Columbia Power rep told The Arrow Lakes News. Local fisher Hank Scown is sceptical about the plan. He sees the handover as another sign that Hydro is unwilling to fulfil its commitments. “It’s clear that Hydro is trying to wash their hands of Nakusp and their responsibility to the valley,” he said. The enormous amount of time that the wharf replacement plans have taken shows they are a “very low priority,” said Scown. “We have the drawings and plans,” said Repin about the Nakusp wharf. The Columbia Power representative said the corporation will meet with the community and stake holders once everything is ready to go. “I don’t know Columbia Power,” said Scown, but he wonders if they have the power to get more resources if they are needed to get the job done. The wharf design for the Edgewood project is still in the conceptual phase at this point. Repin hopes to have a meeting with community leaders and stake holders in that community to see if the design is workable or if it needs to be changed. She hopes to
The long way ‘round
Columbia Power’s Audrey Repin shakes hands with Jesse Brown at the Nakusp wharf, one of three the corporation has pledged to replace by April 2013. PHOTO COURTESY OF COLUMBIA POWER CORPORATION
have the design completed this fall. All three wharfs will be built during the low water period of mid-March to mid-April 2013. Repin
More work, fewer restrictions in budget Black Press
Travellers were in for a long wait at Galena Bay last Wednesday, March 28 after the large ferry was taken out of commission with mechanical issues. PHOTO COURTESY OF GAIL MCMARTIN
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is aware that Nakusp has two fishing derbies in the winter, and said the CPC is considering how they can be accommodated.
Alex Atamanenko, MP for B.C. Southern Interior, is not impressed with the direction taken by the Conservative government in the 2012 federal budget. Atamanenko says the government’s plan to raise the eligible age for Old Age Security from 65 to 67 will force seniors to work two years extra while denying jobs for younger workers longer. It also forces low-income seniors in B.C. to live two more years on degrading rates of social assistance. The budget also short changes the Provinces by $31 billion with unilateral changes to the funding formula for federal health transfers, opening the door wide to privatization and two-tier health care. The BC Chamber held a very different view, and welcomed the federal budget as addressing many issues that have been holding back B.C.’s potential to grow and create new economic activity. “Our members across the province have been clear; our ability to prosper and create jobs is being hampered by our inability to find skilled workers and to move major resource projects through the Byzantine regu-
latory approval process,” states John Winter, President and CEO of the B.C. Chamber of Commerce. “Budget 2012 lays out a vision to address these challenges.” Atamanenko, however, was unimpressed by the federal government’s attempts to streamline processes for resource projects. “It seems the government’s only job creation strategy is to facilitate super tankers and dirty oil pipelines over our most pristine land and waterways while gutting environmental assessments,” declared Atamanenko, referring to Conservative plans for sweeping legislative and regulatory changes to environmental assessments and over $100 million in funding to hurry resource extraction. “Once again this government is taking care of its big business friends.” “New Democrats have called for a reduction in the small business tax rates, real protection for retirement security and stable Health Care funding for the provinces,” concluded Atamanenko. “Instead we are seeing the reckless gutting of Canadian programs and a budget that actually plans for unemployment to grow.”
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