There's been surprisingly little discussion of the key way this #SiteC mess was rammed through: by the BC govt kneecapping BC's energy regulator, the BCUC @BCUtilitiesCom. Are we so jaded about corruption that this is no big deal? Campbell did it. @jjhorgan perpetuated it #bcpoli
@BCUtilitiesCom@jjhorgan ..This isn't even what we call 'regulatory capture,' which is when powerful interests capture govt's regulatory processes (like forestry in BC, or BC Oil+Gas Commission). This is arguably worse; just take the existing regulator's powers away full stop. How? Clean Energy Act, 2010
@BCUtilitiesCom@jjhorgan ..And get this: all 3 of Canada's current mega-dam projects are scandal-ridden (both #MuskratFalls & Manitoba's Keeyask have already called public inquiries), & ALL THREE provinces deliberately removed regulatory oversight to ram these projects through.
@BCUtilitiesCom@jjhorgan ..When @jjhorgan came to power he not only did nothing to restore proper regulatory power & independence to the BCUC, he only let them do a truncated review of #SiteC with cynically constrained terms of reference. Why was there no outcry forcing him to restore regulation? #bcpoli
@BCUtilitiesCom@jjhorgan ..The BCNDP has done nothing to give us proper regulation generally; not in forestry, oil and gas, or any other area. Why is this not a larger discussion? But this is really critical in terms of energy. BC Hydro remains an outdated dinosaur partly due to lack of smart regulation.
@BCUtilitiesCom@jjhorgan ..What's really sad, and makes British Columbian voters rightly cynical, is that both @jjhorgan and @adriandix excoriated this destruction of regulatory oversight when they each held the post of Energy Critic. #Sitec#bcpoli
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Important WSJ article on Canada's rivers drying up while we keep building dams anyway, including #SiteC. It's paywalled so I'll include the whole article in this 🧵
Diversify into renewables now! BC can't until it ditches the deceptively named Clean Energy Act.#bcpoli #cdnpoli
Had Bing Thom not died prematurely, he would have gone after @AIBCconnected for its gentleman's agreement rule that architects can't criticize other projects. Reportedly a certain major arch'l firm in Vancouver reported Bing to AIBC for his letter opposing #105Keefer. #vanpoli
@AIBCconnected Bing Thom intended to go after AIBC's muzzling rule & publicly ask them:
"What is the point of architecture if there's no discourse? What is the role of the architect in society? Do we have a public responsibility or are we just hired guns?"
@AIBCconnected Bing's death was a terrible loss for public discourse in Vancouver. BTW he also helped us with a fight I co-founded against the proposed downtown casino expansion (we beat the expansion partly thx to him). You could count on him to do the right thing. AIBC tries to block this.
My elderly family member, whom I kept free of Covid for 3+ years but who finally caught in in an unmasked BC hospital last week, is very sick on Day 9. Rapid test still shows a bright red line. For health issues she can't take Paxlovid. She's in a rage at you, @adriandix. #bcpoli
@adriandix "I'm furious at the hospital and at all the unmasked healthcare workers, but I'm more outraged by @adriandix and Bonnie Henry. The govt is ultimately to blame."
@adriandix She asks: "Why aren't they following science?"
"They kept taking my mask off for tests and procedures - and they weren't even wearing masks when they did it."
I’m a rural BC hospital taking an elderly relative to ER. No masks on staff & visitors but aggressive efforts to make everyone sanitize their hands, despite the fact that the diseases helping to crash the health system are airborne. We are truly living in an age of disinformation
*I’m IN a rural BC hospital. I am not a hospital. But you got that
Look at the handwashing fixation of @IPACCanada & the blindness to airborne transmission & masking stretching back many years. Every year they suggest infection control is largely a handwashing issue. It's as if all the airborne diseases do not exist. Why?
@BCGreens@SoniaFurstenau Here's the timeline of John Horgan's involvement with Teck Resources before he left office. Judge for yourself:
In Dec 2021 the feds indicated they were considering referring Teck's selenium pollution in the Elk Valley to the internat'l joint commission (IJC) #bcpoli
@BCGreens@SoniaFurstenau Feds became involved because Teck's selenium pollution was a longstanding issue. (Recall the fines)
March 2022 Teck lobbied the feds asking that the Elk Valley pollution not be referred to the IJC.
April 12 Teck lobbied Horgan's Chief of Staff & deputy mins of Env & Energy+Mines
The BC govt can fudge the death stats from Covid all it wants ("that death wasn't FROM Covid, it was WITH Covid" etc).
The real truth is the "excess deaths" number - that is, how many of us are dying now vs. before pandemic, minus other factors like poisoned drugs & heat dome.
This is why data modellers like @MoriartyLab focus on excess deaths as the real statistical truth of Covid impacts over time. The problem tho is that over time, elevated deaths from Covid will start to be the "normal" death rate, against which we're comparing new Covid deaths...
This problem is being discussed in several chats I'm in that include Covid science & medical types and public health advocates. What happens when we can't use excess deaths as reliably to get around the govt's obfuscation around Covid's serious health impacts on the public?