The Golden Star reports that, “Columbia River – Revelstoke MLA Norm Macdonald presented to the Legislature last week a petition signed by more than 500 Golden and area residents indicating their opposition to the development of private river-diversion projects on Ventego and Cupola Creeks. …The petition was created by the Golden Chapter of Council of Canadians and had been milling around Golden and surrounding area for about six months. Trevor Hamre, vice-president of the local Council of Canadians chapter, said his message is still the same: We oppose the privatization of rivers in our community.”
“The petition statement reads as follows: The BC government is giving away our publicly owned land and water on Ventego and Cupola Creeks to generate electricity for export, we find this unacceptable. There is no provincial planning and the Columbia Shuswap Regional District, through the enactment of Bill 30, has had their zoning decision-making authority removed. Selkirk Power’s IPP proposals on Ventego and Cupola Creeks have not undergone provincial or federal environmental assessments and the cumulative impacts of the transmission lines, logging, road building, road improvements, along with significant creek diversion have not been evaluated by the provincial government. Your petitioners respectfully request that the Honourable House call for a moratorium on Selkirk Power’s proposals on all IPPs in BC until they are regionally planned environmentally appropriate acceptable to First Nations and publicly owned.”
“The delivery of the petition to the legislature last Wednesday coincided with the opening of the official public comment period for Selkirk Power’s proposals. The B.C. Ministry of Natural Resources is now accepting comments until April 1, 2011. …’We had to do this petition because Selkirk Power denied that there was even any opposition to their project,’ said Hamre. He believes what happens from here depends on how well the community bands together.”
A June 2010 campaign blog on Golden chapter activism against independent power projects can be read at http://canadians.org/campaignblog/?p=3928. Additional Council of Canadians commentary on IPPs can be read at http://canadians.org/campaignblog/?s=%22independent+power%22.
The full Golden Star article is at http://www.bclocalnews.com/news/116619578.html.