Dear editor,
Our MLA, Ronna-Rae Leonard (along with every other BC MLA), was gifted with two new books on the Site C dam project, both arguing that the construction has to be stopped for too many reasons to list here.
A ceremony was recently held on the lawns of the Legislature to announce their presentation, but unfortunately media coverage has been scant – maybe because it’s an ‘out of sight, out of mind’ project and we won’t feel the impact of what’s happening in the Peace River Valley. Wrong. The books that were presented to the MLAs are Breaching the Peace, The Site C Dam and a Valley’s Stand against Big Hydro by award-winning author Sarah Cox, and Damming the Peace, The Hidden Costs of the Site C Dam, edited by Wendy Holm.
Cox’s book walks the reader through a history of earlier B.C. dams to the present construction of Site C. At almost every stage, from before the building of the Bennett Dam to the present, the farmers and Indigenous people have been bullied – there’s no other word for how they were treated and are being treated by their own provincial government and a B.C. public utility corporation. I find the details shocking, with some actions reminding me of what we know happens in the developing world.
When all of our MLAs read these two books, we have no doubt that they will pressure Premier Horgan to stop construction on that dam immediately, and we are looking forward to a response from our MLA once she has read them. I strongly recommend that all B.C. citizens do the same before any more critical damage is done. It isn’t too late to turn this around and use the money saved, on studying alternative power sources. Site C power is not needed, now or in the future.
Rosemary Baxter,
Courtenay