17 06 27 press release premier's meeting with chief willson never happened

PRESS RELEASE Premier “Must Have Imagined” Meeting with West Moberly’s Chief Roland Willson FORT ST JOHN (June 27, 2017): During her visit to Fort St. John last week, Premier Clark was asked in a videotaped interview now posted to Energetic City’s Facebook Page why she wasn’t meeting with the project’s opponents. In response, she said: “I’ve been Premier for four years. Since we approved this, I’ve met with plenty of people on both sides, including First Nations leaders, including Chief Willson.”

That’s a nice sound bite, but unfortunately, it isn’t true. According to Chief Willson, “She must have imagined it. Since approving the project in December 2014, the Premier has not met a single time with West Moberly or Prophet River, the two First Nations opposed to the dam.”

The Premier’s refusal to meet directly with First Nations opposed to Site C may explain why she’s defending BC Hydro’s position on the Highway Realignment at Cache Creek, which is planned for construction this summer and is poised to destroy a historic gravesite, sacred sweat lodge, and two farmhouses at Bear Flat. Chief Willson stated, “If Clark wants to meet with families affected by Site C, why won’t she sit with our Elders and children to explain why she’d rather destroy sacred sites than move a 9 kilometre stretch of road?”

Willson added, “The Premier flies up here and tells Andrew Weaver to look Site C workers in the eyes?

Maybe she should take her own advice and look into the eyes of British Columbians losing their homes because she failed to deliver on LNG. If she’d gotten that done, people up here wouldn’t have to choose between making a living and protecting their way of life.”

In last week’s interview, Clark also claimed that “in terms of the alignment, [BC Hydro] chose the best alignment that they could.” What BC Hydro actually did was choose the cheapest alignment. According to an independent report by S. Graham Engineering Inc dated March 15, 2017, there is another alignment available that would avoid the gravesite, sweat lodge, and farmhouses for an additional cost of only $5 million. In its July 2013 Environmental Impact Statement, BC Hydro admitted that this option was technically and economically feasible, just not the cheapest option available. BC Hydro now claims the alternative alignment will cost as much as $50 million, but has refused to provide any cost data to back up this claim, even though the First Nations have offered to review the numbers confidentially together with project regulators.

The Premier also noted in this interview that the gravesite was only identified about a year ago. That is true. But she failed to mention three important facts. First, BC Hydro moved the road from its original location in 2013 and then failed to discover the gravesite in its own archaeological field work despite its location on the new centreline. Our members found the grave in June 2016, shortly after realising that the 2013 centreline had been changed. The Premier should be thanking us for doing BC Hydro’s job, not blaming us for discovering an inconvenient truth. Second, BC Hydro has known about the sweat lodge (and the one-kilometre buffer zone requested by the First Nations lodge keeper) at least since April 2012.

It’s stated in BC Hydro’s own consultation summary documents. So, that’s five years BC Hydro’s had to redesign the alignment. Third, the avoidance of gravesites not previously recorded is precisely what contingency funds are for. And, for obvious reasons, this project has a large one. According to BC Hydro’s information sheet, there is a $795 million contingency, plus an additional $440 million project reserve for factors beyond BC Hydro’s control for a total of $1.234 billion. So, even at a cost of $50 million, avoiding

the grave, sweat lodge, and farmhouses at Bear Flat would only require expending 4 percent of the project’s contingency funds, which were put in place for precisely these types of occurrences. Chief Tsakoza stated, “we know there’s money in Hydro’s budget, they just don’t want to spend it on us. It makes you wonder, is this payback for us taking their project to court? Or are they just afraid to admit that they made a huge mistake?”

For more information, contact: Chief Roland Willson, West Moberly First Nations: 250.783.0733

Nun wa dee (“Keepers of the Lands”) is a stewardship society serving the Prophet River and West Moberly First Nations