Continuing Privatization of BC Hydro

Oppose the Liberals' Pay-the-Rich Schemes!

Continuing Privatization of BC Hydro

Oppose the Liberals' Pay-the-Rich Schemes!

- Charles Boylan -

Mass rally in Kaslo against sale of BC rivers to private power producers, June 23, 2009, part of the ongoing campaign
"Save Our Rivers" to oppose the privatization of public resources and destruction of the environment.

One of the crimes of the Campbell/Clark neo-liberal government against the people of British Columbia is the scheme to force BC Hydro to purchase privately produced electricity at prices far above its value. The recipients of this pay-the-rich scheme are privately-owned Independent Power Producers (IPPs). The Campbell Liberal government forced BC Hydro into this scheme in 2002 with virtually no public debate, and an opposition in the legislature reduced to two seats. It is now continued by the Clark government.

The Liberal government scheme, Energy for Our future: A Plan for BC (2002) has the following features:

One -- the Liberal government privatized BC Hydro's service delivery (administration and finance) by contracting it out to Accenture, a global monopoly with worldwide gross annual income of $28 billion. Accenture was spun off from Arthur Andersen accounting monopoly of the Enron scandal. About 1000 BC Hydro workers either lost their jobs or moved to Accenture. In 2012, Accenture lost the contract to another monopoly, and those BC Hydro workers who had been transferred to Accenture in 2002 lost their jobs.

Two -- the Liberal government prohibited BC Hydro from producing any new power other than the upgrading of existing dams and possibly the development of Site C on the Peace River. All new power production was to be developed by private capitalists and sold to BC Hydro in long term contracts. This massive fraud created a gold rush of speculators applying for licenses to produce power on hundreds of rivers throughout the province. These run-of-the-river IPP projects have elicited a large number of complaints from concerned residents because of the actual and potential ecological damage.

Map of private power generation projects in BC -- click to enlarge.

Licences were sold for $5,000 to $10,000, thus handing over BC's rivers to private capitalists for virtually nothing, who then procured long term contracts with BC Hydro for very high prices. The average IPP contract sells power to BC Hydro for $124 a megawatt hour (MWH). This compares with BC Hydro's selling price today of $40 per MWH to major industrial users, pulp mills and mines. The enormous loss to BC Hydro is to be made up with higher prices to individual users and government subsidies. Whereas before the public enterprise was a positive contributor to the public treasury while providing electricity at some of the lowest rates in the world, BC Hydro today is being turned into a source of plunder for private interests and a drain on the public treasury while demanding higher and higher prices for electricity especially from individuals and small business purchasers.

Three -- the Liberal government scheme allows for coal generating electricity.

Four -- BC Hydro was forced to follow U.S. market rules allowing private exporters of power access to BC Hydro transmission lines for personal gain.

Five -- BC Hydro was forced to separate its transmission system from its generating system. This proved to be a $250 million dollar fiasco. The Liberal government admitting the disaster reversed this practice in 2010 with the Clean Energy Act.

Six -- the Liberal government eliminated the NDP government's rate freeze on electricity, and allowed private producers to sell directly to industry.

Seven -- even after BC Hydro pays outrageous prices for IPP power, the public enterprise ends up gaining no new assets.

Eight -- The Liberal government guaranteed high price for contracted IPP power enables the private companies to borrow funds to build the projects. This guarantee allows the big banks to lend money to private interests at higher interest rates than they would receive from government or BC Hydro direct borrowing. The public ox was skinned yet again by private interests. During the 1960s and '70s when BC Hydro built its major dams, the government was able to float loans on the money market at triple A rates, much lower than could be charged to private power producers; although, why Canadian governments with such potential wealth at hand from Canada's enormous natural resources and educated and skilled working class have to borrow from private financiers or use private contracted companies at all for public projects are other issues people should think about and question.

Nine -- as widely predicted, the IPP capitalists who joined the gold rush of run-of-river power production quickly flipped their investments for big scores to the giant monopolies such as General Electric and others who have now become the dominant players.

The people of BC need to respond with one voice: Stop Paying the Rich! Defeat the Clark neo-liberal regime on May 14!

Quickening pace of private hydro projects in BC since the 2002 BC Energy Plan and Bill 30 in 2006, which removed local government jurisdiction to disallow energy projects by means of zoning on Crown land.

(Photos/Graphics: Common Sense Canadian, www.ippwatch.info)

Broadcaster and Documentary Filmmaker Tour Four Cities on Water, Electricity and Democracy

- The Common Sense Canadian -

In the lead-up to the BC election, Common Sense Canadian co-founders Rafe Mair and Damien Gillis are travelling to four BC communities -- Kamloops, Merritt, Williams Lake and Prince George -- to discuss key issues shaping the future of our province. The multi-media presentations, titled "WATER + POWER: The Future of BC's Energy, Environment and Democracy," will include video clips from filmmaker Gillis, a speech by Mair and an audience q & a session.

On the agenda is a web of proposed energy projects which represent the vision of both our provincial and federal governments for the economic future of BC -- all with profound impacts on our vital freshwater and coastline. The discussion will cover everything from proposed oil and gas pipelines to fracking, Site C Dam, Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) and private river power projects -- to an alternate vision for managing BC's resources and economy to the benefit of the public and environment.

The non-partisan events will scrutinize the BC Liberals' economic and environmental record over the past decade, while examining the NDP's policy positions on issues like the proposed Kinder Morgan pipeline expansion to Vancouver and the nexus of Site C Dam, natural gas "fracking" and the plan to build a massive LNG industry on BC's coast.

"Our goal is to provide the public with accurate information and connect the dots between interrelated projects of enormous environment, social, cultural, and economic significance," says Gillis. "We're furthering a much-needed dialogue about the future of our province at a key moment politically."

The details for the upcoming events are as follows:

April 23, 7 pm: Kamloops, BC @ Desert Garden Seniors' Centre (540 Seymour St., Mojave Rm.)

April 24, 7 pm: Merritt, BC @ Merritt Civic Centre (1950 Mamette Ave.)

May 8, 7 pm: Williams Lake, BC @ Williams Lake Secondary School (640 Carson Dr.)

May 9, 7 pm: Prince George @ UNBC (stay tuned for room information)

The Kamloops and Williams Lake events are co-hosted by the local Council of Canadians chapters. All events are by donation.

Invest in Education! Education Is a Right!

Two Years Later, Teachers Are Still Seeking
Redress for Rights' Violations

- BC Teachers' Federation, April 12, 2013 -

Protest by BC teachers in defence of their rights and the education system outside constituency office of
BC Premier Christy Clark, March 28, 2013.

[It is] two years since the BC Supreme Court's landmark decision ruling that legislation the BC Liberals enacted in 2002 violated teachers' Charter rights, and therefore is unconstitutional and invalid.

On April 13, 2011 the BC Teachers' Federation won a major victory in its decade-long court battle to overturn legislation which stripped teachers' collective agreements of protections for class sizes, as well as guarantees of support for students with special needs. The bills had disastrous consequences for teaching and learning conditions across the province because they enabled government to make severe cuts to the public education budget. Government documents introduced as evidence in court calculated those cuts to be more than $275 million per year in 2001 dollars, an estimated $330 million annually in current dollars.

The Supreme Court gave government one year to deal with the repercussions of its ruling but now -- two years later -- the BC Liberals have still done nothing to redress the breach. As a result, the BCTF has been compelled to go back to court seeking a fair remedy.

"The Supreme Court affirmed our collective bargaining rights and gave us hope that a decade of struggling to meet our students' needs might be coming to an end," said BCTF President Susan Lambert. "Two years later, we are still urging the government to act on this important ruling and restore the services our students need and deserve."

Then-Education Minister Christy Clark brought in the unconstitutional bills in 2002. During her tenure as premier, the BCTF has repeatedly appealed to her not to make students wait yet another year in underfunded schools and overcrowded classes.

"This generation of students has really suffered the negative impacts of this unconstitutional legislation," Lambert said. "Children who were in Kindergarten when these bills were imposed are now in Grade 12. Throughout their entire school careers their teachers have had to fight for the classroom conditions and learning resources to meet their needs, and their parents have had to raise more and more funds to bridge the gap between children's needs and inadequate ministry funding."

The BCTF is seeking restoration of the contractual provisions that were unconstitutionally deleted from the teachers' collective agreement, a declaration that the provincial government has failed to address the repercussions of the decision, and damages for losses suffered. The case will be heard in BC Supreme Court beginning September 2013.

(Photos: BCTF)

Blame Liberal Government Not School Board for
Job Losses in District 43

- Brian Sproule -

Eighty-one teachers, 19 teacher aids, 32 clerical and custodial positions and 10 administrative positions are to be eliminated from School District 43 (covering the cities of Coquitlam, Port Coquitlam and Port Moody, and the villages of Anmore and Belcarra). Officials have announced the elimination of these 142 jobs in the district to make up for a $12.1 million projected operating deficit in the 2013/2014 school year. It is six per cent of current staff. The lost positions will result in increased class sizes and workloads for remaining teachers and staff.

Certain elements in the mass media have pointed fingers at the elected school board for alleged financial mismanagement and lack of foresight. The April 19 edition of the Tri-City News (Black Press) in an editorial entitled "Who will pay?" blamed the Board for the massive and growing deficit and went so far as to print the names of all the Board members clearly suggesting that they should be removed from office. There have also been calls for a forensic audit of the Board's books.

The provincial Liberal government has underfunded education for the last 12 years and demanded that school board budgets be kept within the confines of government funding rather than meet the education needs of the communities. When the Cowichan school board refused to bow to the government dictate it was fired just as the Social Credit government of William Bennett fired the Vancouver School Board in 1985.

The BC Liberal government in the name of austerity has been pursuing an anti-social offensive to pay the rich. Public funds are being handed over to corporations in the form of grants, public-private partnerships, bailouts, privatization of public assets and lower corporate taxes while education, health care, and social programs are cut. The Liberal Government through its anti-social actions rejects the government's social responsibility to care for the sick, injured, youth and elderly and general interests of society.

The difficult situation in School District 43 reflects the underfunding of public education and the general transfer of funds from the social needs of the people into the coffers of the rich. That is the fault of the BC Liberal government not the local School Board. Those in the mass media pointing fingers at the School Board for the layoffs are trying to deflect attention away from the consequences of the Liberal government's anti-social offensive and save it from defeat in the provincial election. It will not wash! The blame lies squarely with the Liberal Government not the School Board. On May 14, voters are determined to throw out the perpetrators of the anti-social offensive and their attacks on public education.

Defeat the Clark Liberal Government May 14!
Stop Paying the Rich!
Increase Investments in Social Programs!

For Your Information

Better Schools for BC: The Numbers Tell the Story

- BC Teachers' Federation -

The BC Teachers' Federation has produced a leaflet showing the urgent need to reverse the massive cutbacks to the
province's education system, shown here being distributed by teachers in downtown Victoria, April 16, 2013.


Click image to download PDF.

Invest in Social Programs!

Ten Dollar a Day Childcare Advocates Urge Major Social Program as BC Election Issue

- Coalition of Childcare Advocates of BC -

Increased investments in social programs such as early child care and learning and actions to stop handing billions of dollars over to the resource extraction and private power monopolies are essential to reversing the anti-social, neo-liberal attacks on the polity enacted by the neo-liberal government of Christy Clark and her predecessor, Gordon Campbell, over the past decade.

The Coalition of Childcare Advocates of BC has been organizing support across the province for "investment" in "a community based, non-profit child care system that is high quality, affordable, accessible, publicly funded and accountable."

On April 18, they issued a press release on the occasion of the leader of the opposition releasing a response to its well documented need for action on early care and learning, the text of which is below.

***

"The initiatives tabled in the NDP platform are good first steps" said Sharon Gregson, spokesperson for the Coalition of Child Care Advocates (CCCABC). Most importantly they recognize and address the high cost of parent fees for families with very young children and the need for more quality spaces. (NDP leader Adrian) Dix acknowledges that child care is the 2nd highest expense next to housing for families and lack of child care is a major barrier for women re-entering the workforce.

The CCCABC with the Early Childhood Educators of BC has been calling for a commitment from government to address: high fees which have reached $1900/month per child; too few licensed spaces; and poverty wages for the mostly women working in child care programs.

The $10/day Plan developed by these two organizations has massive support across the province from parents, grandparents, municipalities, school boards, labour unions, business, academics and community groups representing over a million British Columbians. Supporters of the Plan know the importance of quality experiences for children in their early years. They also agree with economists that child care enables parents to participate in the work force, contribute tax revenues and stimulate the BC economy.

Key elements of the NDP announcement today align with the goals of the $10/day Plan. Specifically,

Fee reduction -- the CCCABC calls for fees reduced to $10/day in all infant toddler licensed spaces so a 20% reduction is a start. We recognize that parents, particularly of very young children, need help now. That said, we will continue to push forward and increase momentum for the $10/day Plan.

Accessibility -- the Plan calls for significant numbers of new spaces. This will need to increase over time.

During the initial planning process identified by the NDP, the CCCABC would continue to advocate for the $10 /Day Plan. This includes moving child care into the Ministry of Education, lowering parent fees, creating more quality spaces and providing a living wage for early childhood educators.

While many were hoping for a commitment to the $10/day Plan we acknowledge this is a substantive move in the right direction and will do more for families than unproductive tax credits and registries. We encourage all political parties to commit to solving the child care crisis and we are ready, willing and able to work with a new government to achieve the child care system BC families need.

Sharon Gregson, spokesperson for the Coalition of Child Care Advocates of B.C. can be contacted at 604-505-5725. More information can be found at: www.cccabc.bc.ca/plan.

Coming Events -- Join In!

BC Federation of Labour Plans "We Vote" Receptions

The BC Federation of Labour, among other things, has been organizing a series of "We Vote" events to discuss the issues in the BC election. Here is the most recent schedule:

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