Last month, I wrote an MLA report that talked about the Clean Energy Act, a new piece of legislation that is being debated in the Legislature right now. I made the case that the Clean Energy Act was a betrayal of British Columbians. That report is posted at www.NormMacdonald.ca.
I believe that most people who will read the Clean Energy Act will agree with me that this act threatens the profitability of our publicly owned utility, eliminates public oversight of future energy projects, and continues the giveaway of our rivers for private power production.
The BC Liberals also suspect that if you were to review the act, you would feel the same way.
So rather than talking honestly about their intentions with this bill, they have used millions of your tax dollars to fund a slick advertising campaign that attempts to give the impression that the Clean Energy Act is simply an extension of W.A.C. Bennett’s vision for power generation in British Columbia.
Premier Bennett had a vision that involved ensuring that power generation was owned by the residents of British Columbia, that the profits that were generated by hydro power went to support health and education for British Columbians, and that rates for electricity would remain affordable for British Columbians.
This clearly is not the vision of the BC Liberals. The BC Liberal Energy Plan is all about giving away our rivers to private companies, using our publicly owned utility to give purchase agreements to private power producers at exorbitant rates, and to remove you from being able to decide whether or not it makes sense for a power project to be built on a river near you.
If you believe that the BC Liberals’ Energy Plan is the wrong direction for British Columbia you need to speak out. Send your concerns to Premier Campbell at premier@gov.bc.ca and to the Minister of Energy at EMPR.minister@gov.bc.ca. We must demand that the BC Liberals withdraw the Clean Energy Act.
Norm Macdonald MLA
Columbia River – Revelstoke
