"Anti-privatization" Bill Actually Paves Way for Sell-Off of B.C. Hydro Dams and Other Assets and Strips B.C. Utilities Commissi

A citizens' watchdog group says a bill introduced Monday in the BC Legislature clears the way for the Liberal government to privatize the core assets of BC Hydro, including hydroelectric dams and other generation and transmission assets.

A citizens' watchdog group says a bill introduced Monday in the BC Legislature clears the way for the Liberal government to privatize the core assets of BC Hydro, including hydroelectric dams and other generation and transmission assets.

BC Citizens for Public Power says Bill 85, the BC Hydro Public Power Legacy and Heritage Contract Act, purportedly protects Hydro assets from a sell-off but in fact allows exactly the opposite to take place. Furthermore, Bill 85 provides Cabinet with the power to override BC Utility Commission rate setting decisions, raising the possibility of dramatic electricity rate increases.

"It's positively an Orwellian piece of legislation," said John Young, Executive Director of BC Citizens. "Rather than protecting BC Hydro's dams and transmission lines from being sold, as the bill's title would suggest, this legislation is actually a springboard to privatization. And it gives Cabinet the authority to set electricity rates - stripping the independent BC Utilities Commission (BCUC) of this power."

In creating a series of legal loopholes that allow the sale of Heritage Hydro resources, Bill 85 signals the government's intention to generate much needed revenue from the sale of assets at some point in the not too distant future. Key passages of Bill 85 read as follows:

Sale of protected assets prohibited [generation, transmission and distribution assets]
2(1) Subject to subsection (2), the authority [BC Hydro] must not sell or otherwise dispose of the protected assets.
(2) Nothing in subsection (1) prevents the authority from disposing of protected assets if

a) the assets disposed of are no longer fit for their intended purpose,
b) the assets disposed of are no longer used or useful,
c) the assets disposed of are to be replaced with one or more assets that will perform similar functions.

Young said the loopholes in the legislative language mean any dam, power plant or transmission line that the government deemed "no longer fit" or "no longer useful" or "replaceable" by private power companies could be sold in an instant.

"For example, the Burrard Thermal power plant could be sold the day after this legislation passes and replaced by private power producers, even though Burrard Thermal is on the Heritage Contract Act's protected list," Young said. "And this bill undercuts the BCUC's independence by giving Cabinet unlimited powers to override the BCUC in determining electricity rates - again - something this government has long promised they would never do," added Young "It's not often that a government breaks two high profile promises in a single day in just a 4-page bill."