Thread by @Lidsville

T minus 1 minute! There may be room left in this webinar - please join. #SiteC #bcpoli

https://twitter.com/thenarwhalca/status/1332038784490336258

..I'm going to semi-livetweet this #SiteC webinar. Chief Roland Willson of West Moberly First Nations @dunnezaman is speaking first. Site C will drown the last portion of valley on the Peace River - everything else has been submerged by previous dams... #bcpoli

@dunnezaman ..Treaty 8 promised would be "no forced interference" in hunting and fishing rights - Chief Willson is showing a map animation showing the sheer quantity of imposed dev't in their region. This is "forced interference" - and #SiteC is unnecessary interference...

..Chief Willson: There should be a Sparrow analysis - the govt can infringe treaty/rights but they have to prove that the infringement is necessary. #SiteC isn't "necessary" by any measure (the energy isn't needed; if it were, there are alternatives).

..Chief Willson: The BC Lib removed #SiteC from watchdog oversight; Horgan could have turned this around but did not. #SiteC #bcpoli

..Next speaker, Judith Sayers @kekinusuqs President of the Nuu-chah-nulth Tribal Council. Judith is reviewing Horgan's excuse for passing #SiteC Dec 2017. Since that day we're more than $4bn in to #SiteC...

@kekinusuqs Judith Sayers is also reviewing Horgan's "I'm not the first person to stand before and disappoint Indigenous peoples" statement and his promise to make it up to Indigenous people but has not done so, not with FN energy projects or anything else.

@kekinusuqs Judith Sayers: also critiquing the Milburn review, pointing out that it is not "independent" as advertised. And pointing out that this L-shaped dam is an untried design and on unstable shale. Cites example from Missouri R where a dam planned for shale was put on hold. #SiteC? No.

Judith Sayers: There are so many risks related to #SiteC. But the fact is that this dam is a bad investment for BC, and it will be like #MuskratFalls in Newf/Labrador and that cost will come off ratepayers. #bcpoli

..Next: Marc Eliesen, former Pres & CEO of BC Hydro: "we rejected #SiteC because there would be a violation of FN rights, cost too high, impacts too high, no elec demand, & signif. geotech challenges. All these things are more relevant today. There is a coverup." #bcpoli

..Marc Eliesen: the sidelining of the BCUC & the constraining of the BCUC Review - Horgan is responsible.
NDP and labour lobbyists didn't even participate in the #SiteC BCUC review, relying instead on media spin to get their point across. And Horgan used fearmongering. #bcpoli

..Marc Eliesen: "Horgan won't even provide us with a list of the members of the project assurance board (supposed oversight )but members include many individuals with vested interests in the dam! Extreme conflict of interest."

..Marc Eliesen now criticizing the Milburn review: M does not have the expertise to evaluate the geotech problems at #SiteC nor time to evaluate the finances. Elisen repeats word "coverup." This is serious from a former CEO of BC Hydro as well as Ontario & Manitoba Hydro. #bcpoli

..Next up Sarah Cox, top investigative journalist on #SiteC & author of "Breaching the Peace." (this is going so fast but will be available to watch later)
Sarah believes Horgan is going to do everything he can to keep this troubled project going, and BCers will all pay for it.

..Sarah Cox: "we can also expect continued secrecy and lack of transparency, quotes dam expert Harvey Elwin who has said he has never seen as much opacity on a project in his career, including China's 3 Gorges Dam, as he has seen on #SiteC. #bcpoli

..Sarah Cox: SNC-Lavalin, and other no bid contracts given to co's like Petrowest but through a numbered company. Until we demand an end to the lack of transparency this is going to continue #SiteC #bcpoli

..Sarah Cox: we can also expect the geotechnical problems at #SiteC to continue, with all the extra high costs associated with trying to mitigate the instability. All other BC dams are built in narrow rocky canyons, not wide silty valleys composed of shale like at #SiteC #bcpoli

..End of panelists. Now Chief Roland Willson talking about the PTSD that members of West Moberly First Nations and others are experiencing as they are watching the destruction in the valley for #SiteC, which they have to pass on way in to Fort St John. Extreme pain. #bcpoli

..Roland Willson talking about the madness of the plaque at WAC Bennett dam visitor's centre, which apologizes to the extreme impacts on First Nations of that former dam, meanwhile Hydro was starting #SiteC. "This is cultural genocide." #bcpoli

..Judith Sayers: '#SiteC is now Horgan's project, just to create extremely expensive & unclean energy. And thanks to #SiteC, First Nations can't use the now cancelled Standing Offer program to build own small, cleaner power projects to help with economic dev't. Betrayal #bcpoli

..Sayers - as she said earlier, Horgan's promise to make it up to Indigenous peoples for #SiteC simply has not materialized. "This is where we are left: just out in the cold." And you've probably heard of Bill 17, buying cheap power from the US & Alberta. #bcpoli

..Judith Sayers: 'everything the govt are doing amounts to preventing First nations from building our smaller distributed renewable projects. 'This is the future of energy but is impeded and displaced by high-carbon mega-dam projects like #SiteC

..Marc Eliesen: #SiteC isn't a huge battery storage reservoir like WAC's Williston reservoir. So the intermittency argument is irrelevant. The problem is the neverending skyrocketing costs - they are infinite. But worse problem is public safety of the dam, which can't be assured.

..Marc Eliesen, former BC Hydro CEO: 'I always said #SiteC would come to be called Horgan's Folly. It must be cancelled. I am hoping that the geotechnical problems quickly force its cancellation, because Horgan has barrelled past two other stop signs." #bcpoli

..Sarah Cox on similarities between #SiteC and #MuskratFalls Nfld/Lab and #Keeyask Dam (MB). Public utilities are meant to protect ratepayers and taxpayers but for ALL THREE DAMS the province hobbled the watchdog on purpose. #SiteC has much worse geotech problems than the other 2

Now to Qs. Moderator: the most common Q in the Q&A panel is "HOW CAN BRITISH COLUMBIANS STOP #SITEC" #bcpoli Marc Eliesen answers that grassroots action can have impact. The govt will be receiving the non-expert Milburn report in next month. Everyone should write Horgan & Ralston

Eliesen: the concern with public safety is crucial. You don't keep building a generating station if you don't know if it's safe. To do anything but call a halt is absolutely reckless. Everyone should communicate directly with the govt urging them to cancel #SiteC.

Judith Sayers talking about the famous lack of work safety on the site. "It is a huge issue." Huge WorksafeBC fines - over $1m worth. Falling concrete, breathing silica dust (ie like ground glass). Plus this week's serious injury on site.

Eliesen being asked if other projects this size have been halted. Not aware of any in Canada but many large projects have been stopped/decommissioned in US & elsewhere. But he is talking about sunk costs. We can easily amortize the $6bn in sunk costs so there won't be rate shock

Eliesen: We can avoid financial disaster by stopping #SiteC now. Sunk costs shouldn NOT be taken into account. We should get on with lighter renewable projects. #bcpoli

Now I am laughing really hard because I'm seeing a joke in the chat from Peace Valley farmer Ken Boon who has responded to seeing Sarah Cox show a bowl of crumbly Peace Valley shale, "How dare you steal our shale!"

Jokes have really been only way to deal with the trauma and horror of the damage around #SiteC without losing sanity, esp for local farmers being evicted, and I have appreciated Ken and Arlene's grim humour for a while.

Chief Roland Willson: everything that has been done to the valley, or most of it, can be regained, will grow back. Wildlife will return. We tried to talk to NDP about changing the scope of #SiteC to avoid flooding the valley. We showed them the geothermal capacity... But no.

Chief Willson: until they fill this reservoir, until they flood this valley, this thing can be stopped. But the safety issues... they had a fracking quake there that closed the site! It's not safe. Stop with the bandaids. Chop the limb off and cauterize it. #SiteC #bcpoli

Chief Willson: #SiteC is a fearmongering project. Gordon Campbell's Minister Richard Neufeld went around the rpvoince saying without #SiteC we'll have rolling brownouts. This was absolute fantasy. "Energy sovereignty" is a farcical concern. We can be sovereign tomorrow...

Chief Willson: we can take back our Columbia R entitlement tomorrow but they didn't want to be sovereign; they want to buy dirty cheap US energy to resell. Lib govt shit the bed on LNG, it did zip, so they needed #SiteC to promise jobs. Then Horgan picked up & continued the mess.

..Thank you so much to @thenarwhalca for organizing this excellent panel. The Narwhal is an investigative journalism outlet that BC is incredibly lucky to have. Please become a monthly member! Any amount. We need them. secure.thenarwhal.ca/np/clients/the… #bcpoli #SiteC

@thenarwhalca ..Everyone: @thenarwhalca was also livetweeting the #SiteC panel which I didn't realize. Oh well - the more the merrier! But their livetweet is better, have a look:

https://twitter.com/thenarwhalca/status/1332112066241388544

#SiteC

@thenarwhalca Here is the video recording of the #SiteC expert panel "B.C.'s Site C dam: where do we go from here?" organized by @thenarwhalca (Facebook link) facebook.com/thenarwhalca/v… #bcpoli