Taxpayers should be nervous – Christy Clark’s Liberals don’t have a clue how much Site C will cost

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VICTORIA — Energy Minister Bill Bennett called his own B.C. Liberals cabinet colleagues “a bunch of nervous politicians” who don’t even know what the “upper range is yet” on the cost of the proposed Site C hydroelectric project.

B.C. taxpayers only found out about it after Premier Christy Clark travelled 4,000 km east to tell New Yorkers the bill is going up by another $600 million.

It’s taxpayers who should be nervous.

In just four years the estimated cost of the Site C project has risen by $3.5 billion:

  • In 2010, Premier Campbell chartered five private jets to Hudson’s Hope to announce his government’s support of the Site C project, announcing “it would be between $5 billion and $6.6 billion.” – (Vancouver Sun, April 20, 2010)
  • Just a year later, “the estimated capital cost of B.C. Hydro’s proposed Site C hydroelectric megaproject” had “risen to $7.9 billion.” – (Vancouver Sun, May 19, 2011)
  • In July 2014, B.C. Hydro defended that number, claiming “there are contingencies that are built into the cost estimate. So there’s an 18-per-cent contingency on dam construction components like the powerhouse, the dam itself and a 10-per-cent contingency built in to non-construction components. So there’s a significant contingency in there for the dam.” (B.C. Hydro spokesperson David Conway, Global B.C. 1, July 9, 2014)
  • This week Premier Clark went to New York to tell reporters there that the cost estimate has increased by another $600 million to $8.5 billion, despite previously assuring taxpayers the price wouldn’t be going up further.

You just can’t take Premier Clark and the B.C. Liberals at their word.

New Democrat spokesperson on B.C. Hydro Adrian Dix said that if the government had allowed the B.C. Utilities Commission to do its job, the people of B.C. would understand the project, understand whether it is required now, and understand the cost risks.

Given the fact that the B.C. Liberals went over budget by more than $3 billion on their last five major projects, it would be no surprise if B.C. taxpayers start losing sleep thinking about a bunch of “nervous” B.C. Liberals mismanaging Site C without BCUC oversight.