Thread by @Lidsville

!!! New blockbuster exposé from @sarahcox_bc at @thenarwhalca. "Top BC government officials knew #SiteC dam was in serious trouble over a year ago: FOI docs." The NDP gov't knew about severe geotech instability & didn't stop work. #bcpoli #BCElection2020 thenarwhal.ca/site-c-dam-geo…

@sarahcox_bc @thenarwhalca ..Here are some key points from Sarah Cox's #SiteC exposé:
First, the 2 top bureaucrats who had the #SiteC info are Les McLaren and Lori Wanamaker, two of the many BC Lib leftovers whom Horgan kept, which was the first worrying sign he'd be sticking to BC Lib policies... 2/x

@sarahcox_bc @thenarwhalca Those two bureaucrats - and thus we have to assume cabinet also unless the NDP govt's incompetence and lack of control is at inconceivable levels - knew in May of *2019* how serious the #SiteC stability problems were. They didn't tell us until June of *2020* #bcpoli #BCelxn2020

@sarahcox_bc @thenarwhalca ..The FOI that journalist Sarah Cox filed in Jan 2020 was for documents from the Site C Project Assurance Board. @jjhorgan formed that body in 2017 to "oversee" #SiteC but it has been shrouded in suspicious levels of secrecy for 3 years.

@sarahcox_bc @thenarwhalca @jjhorgan This is how hard it is to get information from BC govt/Hydro: "Following an appeal to the Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner after BC Hydro missed a legal deadline for responding, we received 2,247 pages of documents almost seven months after filing the request."

@sarahcox_bc @thenarwhalca @jjhorgan And even tho Sarah Cox was able to force BC Hydro to release this info (& why does Hydro control info from a body supposedly overseeing it?) "Key sections, including info pertaining to rising cost pressures & severity of key project risks from Jan 2018 to Jan 2020, are redacted"

@sarahcox_bc @thenarwhalca @jjhorgan On Sept. 1, *2019* - over a year ago -"BC Hydro submitted a.. status report to the assurance board listing the overall health and cost of #SiteC's main civil works as “red,” meaning the civil works — the dam structure, generating station and spillways — were in deep trouble."

@sarahcox_bc @thenarwhalca @jjhorgan ..Harry Swain, who chaired the joint Fed-BC review panel on #SiteC: “This project is proceeding in doggone secrecy that just is not at all common in large public projects of any kind,” Swain, a former federal deputy minister, told The Narwhal." #bcpoli #BCelxn2020 #cdnpoli

@sarahcox_bc @thenarwhalca @jjhorgan ..Swain, who was Canada’s Dir. Gen. for electricity & Canada's first senior advisor for renewable energy:

“We’re going to lose $10.7 billion on this project. That would take care of the homelessness problem, unequitable incomes, First Nations health & more all at once.” #bcpoli

@sarahcox_bc @thenarwhalca @jjhorgan Then there's a body called the #SiteC technical advisory board. It met in May 2019 to look at these geotech problems (which come hand in hand with severe financial impacts). The list of attendees is redacted. WHY, @jjhorgan? #bcpoli #BCelxn2020

@sarahcox_bc @thenarwhalca @jjhorgan ..And remember: "The #SiteC project is located in a geographical area filled with faults that can become critically stressed during fracking operations, which are poised to expand significantly in the region to supply gas for the #LNG Canada export project." #fracking #BCelxn2020

@sarahcox_bc @thenarwhalca @jjhorgan ..Energy expert Robert McCullough on #SiteC technical advisory board's May 2019 report: “They’ve gotten pretty het up over this. This is a tone that says ‘you’ve got to do a ton of work right now & we want to hear back that you’re doing it.’ Some of these things are pretty major”

@sarahcox_bc @thenarwhalca @jjhorgan Meanwhile, there's no BCUC oversight of #SiteC (Libs removed it, Horgan refused to remedy that), & "Swain said the assurance board, despite its moniker, is not an oversight board. He described it as “pretty much an emanation of BC Hydro, with a few additions.” #bcpoli #BCelxn2020

@sarahcox_bc @thenarwhalca @jjhorgan ...And guess who's on that fake 'oversight' board? Lori Wanamaker (Finance under Carole James) and Les McLaren (Energy ADM), two BC Lib appointees & #SiteC boosters. Wanamaker in particular went on full frontal attack of the BCUC when she didn't like its #SiteC report. #bcpoli

@jjhorgan In short, both Carole James and then Energy Minister Michelle Mungall would have to have known #SiteC was in serious trouble and didn't tell us. #bcpoli #BCelxn2020

@jjhorgan ..Here's where it gets really hairy. Horgan's appointed #SiteC project assurance board, not a real oversight board & headed by a key #SiteC engineer in a clear conflict of interest, votes to *increase* the no-bid, direct award contracts to #SNCLavalin signed by the previous govt