At a 2012 Paddle for the Peace event the new federal  Justice Minister Judy Wilson-Raybould said the destruction of the Peace Valley for the contentious Site C dam threatens Canada’s reputation on the world stage.   In a video recently published on the Common Sense Canadian, a site co-founded by Rafe Mair and documentary filmmaker Damien Gillis, Wilson-Raybould said Canada’s “reputation is at stake with approval of these projects like Site C, like the Enbridge pipeline.”   “Our reputation as a caring and considerate environmentally friendly nation internationally is going to be questioned,” she said. “Running roughshod over aboriginal treaty and rights, including treaty rights, is not the way to improve that reputation.”   Some Treaty 8 First Nations in B.C. are vocally opposed to the Site C dam, which will flood more than 5,000 hectares of farm land, swamp indigenous archaeological sites and permanently destroy land First Nations use for hunting, fishing and collection of traditional medicines.

Treaty 8, signed in 1899, states First Nations have the right to continue their traditional way of life, including the right to hunt, trap, fish and forage, “for as long as the sun shines, the grass grows and the rivers flow.” 

Wilson-Raybould, MP for Vancouver-Granville, was celebrated last fall for being Canada’s first indigenous minister. The daughter of B.C. First Nations leader Bill Wilson, Wilson-Raybould’s professional background includes high-profile positions such as regional chief of the B.C. Assembly of First Nations.   In a public mandate letter to the minister, Trudeau emphasized the importance of repaired federal relations with Canada’s indigenous peoples:   “No relationship is more important to me and to Canada than the one with Indigenous Peoples,” the Prime Minister stated. “It is time for a renewed, nation-to-nation relationship with Indigenous Peoples, based on recognition of rights, respect, co-operation, and partnership.”   Permits for Site C construction were granted under the previous federal government and, as DeSmog Canada first reported, at least 14 of those permits were quietly granted during the writ period of the last federal election.   Four court cases initiated by Treaty 8 First Nations and the Peace Valley Landowners Association are still in the courts.   Earlier this month Wilson-Raybould told a Victoria audience she sees no conflict between her past protest and her current position as minister of justice.   “Everything I do as the Member of Parliament for Vancouver-Granville and as the minister is rooted in my values and my principles, rooted in the mandate the prime minister gave me and the rule of law, and ensuring the Charter of Rights and Freedoms is dealt with,” she told reporters at a Liberal policy convention.   The minister added she was “proud” to have attended an annual Paddle for the Peace gathering with opponents of the project.   “With respect to Site C, I understand the tremendous opposition to moving forward,” she added.   When pressed on the 2012 video, Wilson-Raybould’s spokesperson Joanne Ghiz told the Globe and Mail the project was approved by the former federal government and that BC Hydro, the project proponent, must comply with legally binding conditions. Ghiz added a project appeal is currently under examination.    Chief Roland Willson of the West Moberly First Nation said letters opposing the project on treaty grounds have been sent to Trudeau’s cabinet.   “I have to believe in my heart they are seriously considering it. They have to understand the process was severely flawed,” he told DeSmog Canada in a former interview.   “They can’t talk about a new enhanced relationship and start stabbing their fingers in our eyes…There’s no doubt it’s an infringement of treaty rights,” he said.   Many had hoped the new federal government would give treaties greater weight in decisions about major resource projects.   In February, a coalition of organizations from across Canada, including Amnesty International and the David Suzuki Foundation, urged Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to halt construction of the Site C dam, saying the project violates Treaty 8.   “Our organizations are profoundly concerned that construction of the Site C dam is being pushed ahead despite the conclusion of a joint federal-provincial environmental assessment that it would severely and permanently undermine indigenous peoples’ use of the land; harm rare plants and other biodiversity; make fishing unsafe for at least a generation and submerge burial grounds and other crucial cultural and historical sites,” an open letter released by the coalition said.   “The people of Treaty 8 have said no to Site C. Any government that is truly committed to reconciliation with indigenous peoples, to respecting human rights and to promoting truly clean energy must listen.”

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Authorizations allowing construction to begin immediately on the Site C dam on the Peace River in northeastern B.C. were issued on Tuesday by B.C.’s Ministry of Forests, Lands and Natural Resource Operations — despite a pending legal challenge by the Treaty 8 First Nations.

This Saturday, hundreds of people in canoes and kayaks will paddle down the Peace River to protest the imminent construction of the dam and flooding of the river.

The $8.8 billion Site C dam — the most expensive public project in B.C. history — was approved by the B.C. government in December. If built, the dam will flood more than 100 kilometres of the Peace River and its tributaries, drowning agricultural land that experts say could produce fruit and vegetables for one million people.

Since the government’s decision to move forward with the project, expert voices have come out of the woodwork to speak out against the project.

Last week, the Greater Vancouver Regional District Board, representing 23 local governments and 2.5 million people, voted to ask Premier Christy Clark for a two-year moratorium on Site C. The board joins more than 30 other B.C. municipalities calling for a moratorium on the project.

“This permitting decision shows the provincial government’s disdain for B.C. ratepayers,” said Rob Botterell,  general counsel to the Peace Valley Landowner Association.  “BC Hydro’s own analysis shows that a two-year delay will save B.C. ratepayers about $200 million.  Who benefits from the urgency to construct Site C? Certainly not those of us paying the tab."

Dam Construction Will 'Indefinitely Scar' B.C.'s Relationship with First Nations

The First Nations Leadership Council recently said moving forward with the dam before the Treaty 8 legal challenge has been heard on July 20th will “indefinitely scar” B.C.’s relationship with First Nations.

This spring, energy economist Robert McCullough said that BC Hydro has dramatically underestimated the cost of producing power from Site C and that far cheaper energy alternatives are available.

Harry Swain, chair of the panel that examined Site C for the federal and provincial governments, has called the failure of the B.C. government to investigate alternatives to the dam a “dereliction of duty.” His criticism of the B.C. government's actions was called “unprecedented” by environmental law experts.

The cost of renewable alternatives have plummeted in cost in recent years and Site C’s business case assumptions are two to five years out of date. The Canadian Geothermal Energy Association says geothermal can meet all of B.C.'s future energy needs at a lower cost than Site C with fewer environmental impacts.

Despite growing opposition from experts, BC Hydro released polling on Tuesday indicating that support for the dam has increased amongst British Columbians.

The Abacus Data poll shows 59 per cent of those polled support building the Site C dam, while 22 per cent support the dam under certain circumstances. Seventeen per cent are opposed. Province-wide awareness of the Site C dam has increased significantly: 75 per cent of British Columbians surveyed are aware of Site C now, compared to 41 per cent in 2013.

The B.C. government says Site C will provide approximately 10,000 direct jobs during construction and will generate enough electricity to power about 450,000 homes per year.

However, the panel that reviewed BC Hydro’s application to build the dam found demand for the power had not been proven on the timeline provided and called for an independent review of costs by the B.C. Utilities Commission — a call the B.C. government has ignored.

Early indications are that some of Site C’s power will be used to power natural gas operations in northeast B.C. For at least the first four years, demand for the power will be insufficient so a portion will be exported at a projected loss of $800 million.

Photo: This section of the Peace River will be flooded if the Site C dam is built.

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I round a bend on Highway 29 just west of Fort St. John and a magnificent river valley opens up before me.

At the bottom of the winding road, farmers' fields stretch as far as the eye can see along the banks of the mighty Peace River.

This is the same valley explorer Alexander Mackenzie paddled through in 1792, noting in his journal that the valley was so rich in wildlife that in some places it looked like a barnyard.

“Ninety per cent of the people who take that drive remember it for a lifetime,” says local rancher Leigh Summer. [view:in_this_series=block_1]

Today, the highway toward Hudson’s Hope is dotted with trucks carrying canoes and kayaks, all converging upon one spot: the Halfway River bridge, where the 9th annual Paddle for the Peace will launch.

The Paddle is an annual pilgrimage for people who want the valley to be protected from BC Hydro’s proposed Site C dam, which would flood 83 kilometres of the Peace River and 24 kilometres of its tributaries. The two-hour paddle takes place on a section of the river that will be flooded if the dam is built.

Highway 29 between Fort St. John and Hudson’s Hope is home to several billboards with slogans like “Keep the Peace,” “Site C Sucks” and “Save the Peace Valley.”

With the federal and provincial governments expected to make their decisions on the project this fall, there’s an undercurrent of tension at this year’s Paddle as farmers, ranchers and First Nations wait to see what will be next in their decades-long fight to stop the dam (the project was first rejected in 1982).

The people of this area know a thing or two about dams given that the Peace River is already home to two major ones.

Leigh Summer was just 14 years old when his family’s ranch was flooded by the W.A.C. Bennett Dam in 1967. His grandparents homesteaded that land in the 1920s and his mother was born there.

“We were told it was going to be good for the economy, so we took it in stride,” Summer says while sitting in his boat with his family during Saturday's Paddle for the Peace.

The W.A.C. Bennett dam stretches two kilometres across the head of the Peace canyon and creates Williston Reservoir, B.C.’s largest body of freshwater.

“I think the Williston Lake has paid dividends to the province,” Summer says. “But I think the time has come to realize that it’s a decent energy, but it’s a thing of the past.”

Now, 47 years after being flooded out for the first time, Summer's ranch is at risk again — this time from BC Hydro’s proposed third dam on the Peace, dubbed “Site C.”

With a price tag of $7.9 billion, the Site C dam is the largest infrastructure project in Canada and would produce about 5,100 gigawatt hours of electricity each year. But the demand for the power has been questioned by economists and by the joint review panel that reviewed the project.

The panel's report, released in May, was inconclusive, saying both that the dam could provide cheap, reliable power for B.C. and that the demand for that power is not clear. The panel asked the provincial government to refer the project to the B.C. Utilities Commission to analyze the costs — something the province has yet to do.

“Justification must rest on an unambiguous need for the power and analyses showing its financial costs being sufficiently attractive as to make tolerable the bearing of substantial environmental, social and other costs,” the report says.

If the dam is built, Summer would be one of dozens of families who will impacted by flooding, slope instability and road re-alignments. His family could end up with a road through the field in front of their house. He finds it galling how BC Hydro talks about this being the Crown corporation's last chance to build a big dam.

“Why is this the last if this is such a good thing? They are admitting that hydro electricity was good in the 19th and in the 20th century. We’re in the 21st century … we have to either look to conservation or other forms of energy,” he says. “It’s so archaic. Building this dam isn’t even progress for the province.”

Leigh, his wife Darcy and their three young children spend most of the summer enjoying the Peace River. Their youngest son, a fifth generation Peace Country boy, is even called River.

Leigh Summer's family ranch was flooded by the W.A.C. Bennett dam in 1967.

River Summer spends a lot of time on the Peace River with his parents and two older sisters.

“I’m just sad at what they lost already with the two valleys,” Darcy says. “When you see pictures and when you do research on that, it was just beautiful, it was so magnificent. To think that we’re going to keep destroying it.”

This stretch of the Peace valley between Fort St. John and Hudson’s Hope is the last intact part of the river in British Columbia.

“Why can’t we leave a piece of the Peace intact for future generations?” Leigh says, his daughter sitting in his lap. “Let them have a choice. If we flood it, we take that choice away from them, from ever seeing what the Peace River was like.”

Out of sight, out of mind for the voting majority

For those trying to stop the Site C dam, one of the biggest challenges is that this part of the province — a 14-hour drive from Vancouver — is out of sight, out of mind for the voting majority of the province.

A September 2013 poll commissioned by BC Hydro found only four in 10 British Columbians had even heard of the Crown utility’s proposal to build a third hydroelectric dam on the Peace River.

“That’s what this event is all about,” says Roland Willson, chief of West Moberly First Nation. “There are people who are making a decision about this valley who have never even been here.”

Roland Willson, chief of West Moberly First Nation.

“There is nothing better in the world than to be able to put your boat on the water or go stand knee deep in the water and catch a fish and eat that fish. And drink the water. That in itself is something that’s worth saving,” Willson says.

Because the Peace River is the only river to break the barrier of the Rocky Mountains between the Yukon south almost to Mexico, it has provided a gateway for wildlife and people for thousands of years.

Although few British Columbians make it up to the Peace region nowadays, Fort St. John is the oldest non-native community in British Columbia, established as a fur trading post in 1794 — and First Nations have been here more than 10,000 years. Indeed, the Peace got its name from a peace treaty signed between the Danezaa people, called the Beaver by the Europeans, and the Cree signed in 1781.

As I float down the river in one of about 250 boats taking part in the Paddle, First Nations drummers start to sing alongside. At just that moment, an eagle swoops overhead.

About 250 boats were on the water for Paddle for the Peace on Saturday July 12.

“We’re prepared to take any means necessary to stop this project in support of the Treaty 8 First Nations leadership,” Grand Chief Stewart Phillip told Desmog Canada at the Paddle. “I really hope that this project is buried once and for all.”

People aren’t the only ones who will be impacted if the dam is built.

“Site C will make a major contribution toward severing that Rocky mountain chain that goes all the way from Yellowstone to Yukon,” says Sarah Cox, senior conservation program manager for the Yellowstone to Yukon Conservation Initiative.  

“The science shows that vulnerable species like grizzly, wolverine and lynx will be greatly impacted to the extent that populations may not be recoverable,” she says. “It’s hard to imagine that the beauty of this valley will be completely flooded and underwater.”

Last week, the Sierra Club BC, Peace Valley Environmental Association and Yellowstone to Yukon Conservation Initiative launched a new website, StopSiteC.org, where citizens can sign a petition to voice their opposition to the project.

'The Peace … has paid her price'

Doug Donaldson, the NDP’s aboriginal affairs and reconciliation critic, spoke to the crowd of paddlers before they hit the water.

“I think that this river and the Peace River Valley and you have given enough to the province,” he said.

A billboard protests the Site C dam above Bear Flats in the Peace Valley.

Organizers said BC Liberal representatives were invited to speak, but did not attend. Minister of Energy and Mines Bill Bennett has said he has not made up his mind about the dam yet.

For Leigh, who’s watching and waiting to see whether his family may be uprooted a second time by one of BC Hydro’s dams, the Peace has shouldered more than its fair share of the impacts of providing power for the province.

“The Peace River in British Columbia has paid her price for prosperity,” Summer says. “Do we have to completely destroy the whole Peace River in all of B.C.?”

He’s frustrated that the province has exempted the project from the review of the B.C. Utilities Commission, the independent regulator that turned the dam down in 1982.

“That’s wrong. We call ourselves a democracy; that’s not democracy,” Summer says.

“The truth would set us free here, but the truth never gets to the right people.”

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With a provincial decision on the Site C dam expected in September, the District of Hudson’s Hope is calling on B.C. Premier Christy Clark to refer the Site C dam project for review by the B.C. Utilities Commission (BCUC).

“Before spending $7.9 billion of taxpayers money on the proposed Site C dam and increasing the already enormous $62 billion provincial debt, the provincial government needs to do its homework to see if there are less costly alternatives," said Hudson's Hope Mayor Gwen Johansson.

Hudson’s Hope request echoes the findings of the joint review panel’s 457-page report on the Site C dam, which recommended that the B.C. Utilities Commission review Site C’s costs, develop a long-term pricing scenario, review BC Hydro’s load forecasts and demand-side management plans.

“We feel we haven’t had a full arms length, independent review,” Johansson told DeSmog Canada.  “We need to look at the cost, at the demand and at the impact of these emerging technologies.”

The Liberal government previously exempted Site C from the oversight of the B.C. Utilities Commission, which has rejected the project previously. When the joint review panel recommendations came out, Energy Minister Bill Bennett immediately threw cold water on the idea of the project being reviewed by the independent regulator.

“This project has been poked, prodded and analyzed for the last 35 years,” he said at the time. “I think subjecting it to another review after all the years it has been studied, is not a good use of public money.”

A spokesman for Energy Minister Bill Bennett declined a request for comment on Wednesday.

Hudson’s Hope, a community of 1,100 people in the heart of the Peace River Valley, would be impacted more than any other municipality if a third dam is built on the Peace River. About 600 hectares of land in the district would be flooded and another 1,400 would land inside BC Hydro’s “impact lines,” putting the land off limits for permanent structures. Hudson’s Hope is already home to the W.A.C. Bennett Dam and the Peace Canyon dam. (Map of current and proposed dams)

“It’s such a beautiful valley,” Johansson said. “One of the best things about living in Hudson Hope is to drive through the valley from Fort St. John to Hudson Hope and that would be lost.”

Johansson was in Vancouver yesterday to release a report by Urban Systems, commissioned by Hudson’s Hope, reviewing the findings of the joint review panel report.

 “Critical questions about the proposed Site C project and viable alternatives remain unanswered," the report finds. It continues:

“The evidence suggests that a commitment to this $7.9 billion public investment would be premature before the BCUC undertakes a review of the proposed Site C project costs and long-term energy pricing and re-investigates the comparative costs and benefits of potential alternatives.” With BC Hydro stating that it has generation capacity to meet demand until 2028, Johansson says more time should be taken to consider alternatives.

“Some options have the potential to save B.C. taxpayers billions of dollars while at the same time avoiding the negative impacts of Site C,” Johansson said.

DeSmog Canada’s series on the proposed Site C dam has explored alternatives to the dam — including how the province of B.C. has failed for three decades to follow up on advice to research geothermal options.

"There is no crisis.  Let's adopt the recommendations of the Joint Review Panel and allow the BCUC to do the job it was set up to do,” Johansson said.

Johansson and other Peace Country residents will gather this weekend for the annual Paddle for the Peace.

Photo: Peace Valley near Hudson's Hope by Susan Hubbard via Flickr

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