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Columbia River Treaty a major campaign issue
Letter to the Editor
The Columbia River Treaty re-negotiation is one of the most understated yet most important federal issues in Kootenay-Columbia.
Right now, the Americans send about $120 million annually into B.C. Government coffers from hydro that is generated in the US. This money is compensation for using Kootenay-Columbia as the American water reservoir and for flood control. The Treaty that directs this cash for water flow is up for re-negotiation.
The US water lobby is powerful, conservative, organized and strong. They want to eliminate our Canadian entitlement yet retain existing water control and business as usual. The impact on our Kootenay vitality – our ecology, sustainable farming, tourism, recreation, forestry and fisheries – continues to be massive.
About 1100 square kilometres of our Kootenay-Columbia remain underwater so American hydro generating companies can maximize power production, minimize their urban flood concerns, ensure irrigation to a desert, and maintain recreational opportunities on their waterfronts.
Lake Roosevelt is a US mecca of recreation that has been insulated from ecologically damaging up and down water levels. Meanwhile much of Lake Koocanusa is dried up for most of the year, and you can’t even launch a boat. The Americans enjoy the benefit of irrigation in an arid, dry zone, growing water thirsty, high value crops like alfalfa. Meanwhile, in Canada, the third largest agricultural valley in British Columbia remains under water.
Kootenay-Columbians deserve better. We need someone to take a hard line at the negotiating table and act like the upstream country we are. We need assurances the Kootenay Columbia sacrifices are compensated. We need tenacity, smarts and a lot of hard work to make this happen.
Not one cent of the Treaty earnings is earmarked directly to Kootenay-Columbia as compensation. Imagine how millions of dollars every year in government initiatives would benefit local healthcare, transportation, culture, recreation, agriculture, economic development, environmental protection.
The Kootenay-Columbia has a federal Treaty being negotiated and our representative is a provincial government whose leader barely campaigned out of the Lower Mainland.
In the 1960s, Columbia River Treaty dams and reservoirs inundated 270,000 acres of prime Kootenay Columbia ecosystems. We lost almost 1,100-square-kilometres of agricultural lands, foraging /livestock ranges, and timberland including the third largest agricultural valley in BC. Thousands of Kootenay-Columbia residents and First Nations were displaced. Entire communities and their infrastructure flooded forever.
Robin Goldsbury,
Kootenay-Columbia Liberal Party Candidate
