Over the last two weeks the Carole James NDP have made one incompetent stumble after another on the critical economic issue of clean independent power projects (IPPs) in BC.
It started on March 20 with NDP energy critic, John Horgan, admitting on CKNW that the NDP would not only ban all future IPPs in the province, but that even a recent project which he agreed was a benefit to the community and environment (the $150-million Kwoiek project near Lytton) would not proceed if the NDP were in power: "If we were in power six months ago before they received their approvals it wouldn’t have proceeded. That’s correct."
John Horgan also said that the NDP believed the need for clean, green power was a "fallacy" and that their plan depended on the economy shrinking, not growing.
After CKNW host Mike Smyth challenged this dangerous and reckless approach - accusing John Horgan of creating "policy on the fly" -
John Horgan kicked into damage control with a letter to the Province newspaper on March 25, which only confirmed their intention to place a moratorium on these projects.
Confirming the NDP’s compete hypocrisy on this issue, archival documents released today show that it was the NDP in the year 2000 who actually reduced water rental rates in order to attract more run-of-river IPP development in the province. Why? Because according to then-Minister Gordon Wilson, "Small hydro projects successfully balance environmental sustainability with economic growth."
The special advisor to the Energy minister at the time?
None other than John Horgan. The facts are clear. The NDP opposition to IPPs is driven purely by ideology that exceeds that of even the former NDP government. B.C. needs new clean energy if we want to grow our province, and IPPs are one way to meet this growing demand while creating hundreds of jobs and billions in new investment in our communities. For Carole James to maintain this blindly ideological position in the face of these facts is simply reckless, irresponsible and dishonest.
