Hello, My name is Cameron Davidson.
Intially prepared for January 8/2014.
I apologize to the panel for my tardiness. I was, unfortunately, prevented from
Presenting as I was called in to cover nightshifts for a co-worker undergoing
a medical emergency.
Thank you for accepting my words.
Before I start I would like to thank you to the Treaty 8 First Nations for the honour of speaking
in their territory and acknowledge and respect the fact that the soverign people of this area have
already rejected this project and am taking this opportunity to show my support for that position.
To the panel and the representatives of B.C. Hydro I will say thank you for hearing me out.
I grew up in Fort St. John and return to the region regularly. My father worked in the oil and gas sector
for over thirty years. He also operated a small riverboat tour company and we would often travel up
and down the Peace River and many other rivers in the area.
It has been an honour to meet with many of the people who call the Peace River Valley home, to
hear them speak out for the protection of the land base.
The number of issues and angles that the local resistance movement has presented to this panel to
date is staggering; from problems relating to the lack of environmental foresight during
the previous dam projects, to the lack of cumulative impact studies across the multiple industries
that operate in his region, to questions of local food production, air quality, noise pollution as
well as issues revolving around spiritual values, cultural values, indigenous rights and history
and consideration of the modes of life BC Hydro intends to interupt and 'mitigate'.
I have heard intense criticism of the operating methods of B.C. Hydro throughout the process, I
have listened to people defend their homes, their livelihoods, and their ways of life.
…and they are not alone. There are hydroelectric projects happening across the globe and they
are, of course, meeting intense resistance in a lot of areas including Ethiopia, Burma and the Amazon. I
looked up a map showing the operational dams around the world and they are
everywhere…Of course…each with their own footprint of ecological, cultural, and archeological
damage. I mention this as I feel the work of the local resistance movement echoes human values found
in communities across the planet.
There is a desire amongst the public for entirely different approaches to producing energy.
Approaches that don't even seem to make it onto B.C. Hydro's radar. Approaches that call for
recognition that the current reckless expansion of industry across the planet must be halted.
Other technologies must be implemented. Not because one side is good and the other bad, or
any nonsense like that. Just because if we, as human beings, want a future for the planet and
a human future upon it, the current processes must be interrupted.. A human future will require the
recognition of the 'Rights of Nature' to exist, not as
property, or as resources for exploitation, but actually and really as a free standing entities that
play a socio-cultural role. In this region, province and country, that recognition will require a
dramatic shift in how wealth is measured and used. It is unlikely we can accurately assess
the long term consequences of this project, or any other major industrial development, without
acknowledging and shifting the systemic relationships that have been formed between money,
debt, energy production, unnecessary goods, climate change, international relationships and
regional sovereignty.
B.C. Hydro's projected power usage increases, 40% increase in 20 years, are in direct conflict
with the usage rate data that shows an approximately 5% decrease in domestic power use since
2008. This demonstrates a reduction in usage by both homeowners and businesses (a testament
to the success of B.C. Hydro's demand side reduction policies). However, Based on several public
statements by our premier, the power is needed for LNG.
If the power is for LNG, then clearly gas production involving fracking will continue in this area
of the province. Given the massive volumes of water piped out of the Williston Reservoir for
fracking purposes, I am also concerned that the reservoir associated with Site C is considered
an attribute to support expanded fracking operations in the area. And, incidentally, fracking is
not subject to any regulations around freshwater use… Anyway, I'm not going to go so far as
to suggest back room handshakes and movie villain laughter but, well, that is sort of the way it
seems.
This gas sector, obviously, is a multibillion dollar a year industry that can afford to develop its
own power generation rather than relying on the taxpayers of B.C. to provide for them through
the building of Site C. Building a Cogen plant, as many have suggested, which could provide the
same amounts of power from a fraction of the terrestrial footprint makes more sense – primarily
because it can serve as a short-term energy alternative until such time as truly green energy
alternatives are put in place. It would also be possible to dismantle gas co-gen plants once truly
green sources of energy are established and remediate the land in the future. But beyond that,
the suggestion of a 40% increase in usage is a whole other type of irresponsibility. As
a species facing dramatic weather events as a result of 1st world lifestyle, deny it or whatever, but
projecting anything other than a reduction in usage, along with a sweeping transformation in how
power is generated in the region and province, is an avoidance of reality.
There are several oil and gas Multinationals operating in the Peace Region of British Columbia.
At least two of those (ConocoPhillips, Shell Canada ( as a Subsidiary of Royal Dutch Shell) are
documented to be in the top 5 producers of GHG's amongst publicly traded companies on the
planet. If the projected usage rates are connected to assisting these, and other foreign companies,
to profit off of further environmental degradation of the land base from underneath the British
Columbians who live here that, again, is an unfortunate denial of the current human reality. It is
again a clinging to an outmoded and unsustainable view of what resources are for, what the land
itself is actually doing for us. It is again a view of the earth as property rather than as an entity
that has it's own right to an existence free from violence.
Canada, along with other developed nations, have refused to provide financial 'accommodation'
to developing nations that have been adversely affected by extreme weather conditions related to
Climate Change. Canada has refused to accept responsibility for not meeting the GHG reduction
levels promised to the global community. Climate Change that is directly related to the fossil
fuel industry our Region thrives on. In building the Site C dam B.C. Hydro would fail to push
for rapid technological innovation and implementation that many countries are successfully
pursuing at this time. They would fail to seize an opportunity to admit the lack of foresight
inherent in our cultures current operational model. By using old technologies with a massive
terrestrial footprint and further alienating the indigenous culture in the area through continued
destruction of their traditional territories B.C. Hydro would be, currently are, clinging to a
model of colonization and domination that has had little positive impact the world over. They
would also continue to push forward an 'economy over ecology' concept that has negatively
impacted Canada's international reputation. The current economic paradigm fails to apply any realistic
relationship to the land, air and water. An excellent global perspective on this failing, as well as
strategies utilizing design and technology to address it can be found in the work of Peter Joseph,
founder of The Zeitgeist Movement. The current legal paradigm fails to provide adequate control over
the extraction of resources and uses of the regional land base to communities. This has been clearly
demonstrated in Canada through the example of the police crackdown, and subsequent court rulings
against the Elsipogtog people in their resistance to SWN Resources (a Houston based company) in New
Brunswick.
It is completely inappropriate to ask taxpayers to pay for a destructive and unwanted project that
reduces the regions ability to produce food, removes (globally) necessary and rare ecosystems
and impoverishes First Nations People of meaningful historic sites by claiming the 'Right to
Profit' off their Traditional territories. The process of 'consultation' and 'accommodation' with
First Nations and other communities on the Site C project occurs inside a legal structure that
denies the 'Rights of Nature' and limits the voices of communities by enforcing corporate 'Rights
to Profit' within an economic structure that fails to acknowledge the necessity of land, air and
water that the communities live on, in and beside. Thus it is inappropriate for BC Hydro to
continue with the current process. In fact, I suggest that
before continuing their inquiries into building the Site 'C' dam B.C. Hydro would be
well served by joining the battle to develop a legal structure that recognizes the rights of the
ecosystems to exist, and adequately values the rights of First Nations and Settler
Communities Right to work together to control the level and intensity of industrial development that is
allowed near the land, air and water that our communities live with, breathe and drink.
Lately, find myself looking at images of rooftop gardens throughout the US and in China, the
gardenscaping of communities in Switzerland, massive solar installations taking place in California,
and Nevada(including retrofitting urban rooftops, hint, hint), or
the dismantling of the nuclear industry in Germany. In Spain nearly all the country power is now
generated using wind turbines. The Netherlands (who have instituted, as
I understand, the 'Rights of Nature' in law) and Iceland are using massive levels of renewables. But I'm
sure B.C. Hydro knows more about these things than I do, I really hope you do, and I really hope you’ll
come out from behind the slick wall of political language and include truly green, forward thinking
concepts into your business practices. Thank you.