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BC Government pushes forward with its Public Comment Period in the Environmental Process of the Minstry of the Environment. Comments are Invited on the Draft Terms of Reference for the Glacier/Howser Project. Since Bill 30 people are no longer stakeholders and have no position in the process except to comment. According to the same law BILL 30 local and regional governments cannot impede the development of private power projects although they too may make comments.

The deadline for comments is midnight, August 20. Please get involved. Click here for the terms of reference.

Watch the movie "Thirst" and introduce yourself to the newest corporation being allied in the attack against the people of BC , the owners of water and waterpower in BC.

"In this year's Public Accounts we see the fallout from that decision. Hydro added another $15 billion to its contractual obligations to purchase electricity from private producers through multi-year contracts.

"The total future obligation is now $28 billion for energy purchases.

A press release from the Purcell Alliance for Wilderness: 

A large group of local residents marched into an Environmental Assessment Office open house for the proposed Glacier/Howser hydroelectric project in Meadow Creek in the West Kootenay region of B.C. demanding a public meeting with the proponent, Axor Group, Inc. of Montreal on Wednesday, June 27. Dissatisfied with the open house format and the project itself the citizens wanted to hear all of their neighbours’ questions and the company’s answers. Their demands were denied by the EAO. Undaunted, the residents set up chairs and invited project manager Simon Gourdeau to answer questions. He complied and, in turn, the residents expressed their own views about the negative impacts of the hydro project.

Tell Michael we want more of this kind of reporting: Power company accuses NDP of trespassing. We do not want anyone to see what is happening to BC rivers and if anyone tries to have a look Michael can stir the corporations and they can use the regulators they created to close all of the hundreds of sites to the public. After all the watersheds (rivers) will be private anyway. Please see the Google Earth map on hydrofactsbc.ca and you will see the number of rivers, the land tenures and the owners until recent changes protected the owners' names.

Dam the public, right Mr. Smyth! What could they possibly know? After all you and the mainstream media and the provincial government are lying to them and/or not informing them. The Province ran a full page ad for the current government at the last election assuring, perhaps as I recall guaranteeing that a vote for the corporations (Liberal Party of BC) was the right choice.

Now in Mr Smyth's Canada Day Province he is either knowingly lying or repeating misinformation without fact checking. Note to CanWest: bonus to Mr Smyth.

I was with Shane Simpson the MLA and environment critic and we had a lot of cameras when we visited the Ashlu River private power workings. Thank goodness Mr. Simpson was with us because the bullies at the site backed down when they saw the MLA's ID after they blocked the public forest service road with their trucks  Mr. Smyth and the Province expect readers to believe nonsense.  Mr. Simpson did not go near the Ashlu River tunnel portal and Mr. Lyons, Mr. Smyth's source, whoever he is was not there either. I didn't see anyone complaining the week earlier when Barry Penner (BC Min if Enviro) walked out of the huge tunnel wearing tennis shoes. He was very comfortable with the Ledcor staff at the site because he spent a lot of time during the last election with them.