Letter to the Editor

The Minister of Energy, Bill Bennett recently submitted a letter to Alaska Highway News titled, “Ontario Catching up to B.C.”(Mar.22/16)

After giving himself a great big pat on his back, he makes some erroneous claims about the cost of power: Bennett states in his letter that “electricity from Site C will cost 5.8 cents per kilowatt hour, while the power being purchased in Ontario will cost 8.59 cents for wind power, 15.67 cents for the solar power and 17.59 cents for the hydro power.”

He also makes the additional claim that “Site C will ensure that this (the price) will not change in the future.”

It is becoming increasingly difficult to take any of his comments seriously as the rate payers of B.C. are about to embark on their next four per cent residential increase on hydro rates provincially.

As of Friday April Fools (sorry… April 1st) we will be paying 8.3 cents for the first tier (732 kWh) followed by 12.4 cents per kWh for the second tier. The newest rates are based on the Liberal government’s four per cent increase and are slated to continue each and every year from now on.

Evidently, someone forgot to pass this information along to the Energy Minister. As for his “5.8 cent per kWh” cost of Site C power, by BC Hydro’s own numbers, Site C will cost a MINIMUM of 8.3 cents per kWh. This figure is also based on the Site C project coming in “on budget.” Highly unlikely.

The real question now is: Why is Mr. Bennett misleading all of us with erroneous energy costs associated with Site C? Perhaps his “advisors” are once again at work trying to “sooth and massage” the ratepayers into some kind of trance. Sorry Minister… we will not be fooled by your fabricated numbers regarding this sorry project. Perhaps it is time that you have a closer look at your own hydro bill.

Rick Koechl,

Mike Kroecher,

Charlie Lake

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