Honourable John Horgan Premier of Executive CouncilHonourable Adrian Dix
|
OPEN LETTER: Call for the Halting of Site C Construction Due to the COVID-19 Outbreak
Dear Premier Horgan and Minister Dix:
We are writing to request that immediate action be taken to compel BC Hydro to halt all construction at Site C Dam due to the risk COVID-19 now poses to vulnerable workers and nearby Indigenous and non-Indigenous communities in northeast B.C.
Through UBCIC Resolution 2011-25, UBCIC highlighted the environmental dangers of the Site C Dam and pointed to the devastating effects it will have on the Treaty and Aboriginal Rights of Treaty 8 First Nations. UBCIC now calls upon the Province to recognize that the transmission of COVID-19 amongst workers is an urgent and pressing concern. BC Hydro has confirmed that 16 of its construction workers at the Site C Dam site are under self-isolation with flu like symptoms. Given the close quarters and inevitable contact points at the 1,600-worker camp, an outbreak of COVID-19 would be disastrous and with dire implications for nearby communities, including First Nation communities. We are informed that there is an extreme shortage of health services in northeast British Columbia, with virtually no hospital beds available to handle an outbreak in Fort St. John or nearby Indigenous and non-Indigenous communities.
The time for intervention is now. BC Hydro’s recent news release also reveals that it is barrelling ahead with Site C Dam construction, including work on river diversion, transmission lines, highway realignment, clearing and other elements. This negligence and irresponsible continuation of construction places the welfare of workers and communities at an unacceptable risk and is utterly inconsistent with the health advice provided by Provincial Health Officer Dr. Bonnie Henry.
We look forward to your timely response.
On behalf of the UNION OF BC INDIAN CHIEFS
Grand Chief Stewart Phillip
President
Chief Don Tom
Vice-President
Kukpi7 Judy Wilson
Secretary-Treasurer
CC: West Moberly First Nation
Minister Bruce Ralston
Minister George Heyman
Minister Doug Donaldson
Showing 7 reactions
BC Hydro accounting practices used for the environmental assessment (20% loss of a species is affected by 20%loss of it’s prey species, both of which are affected by a 20% loss of habitat, etc). That should mean a reassessment, but no.
Geotechnical surveys that obviously were not adequate. If the ground you are building something on starts having kilometer long cracks suddenly appear, stop the project and start the surveys again. But no.
Multiple environmental violations, with fines around the half million dollar mark that if paid come directly out of BC ratepayers utility bills.
Direct misinformation given to the public when citing why the dam would continue on Dec 11, 2017, using “advice from financial consultants” who were grossly wrong about the financing and who have never been identified. ie flat out lying to the public.
Rejecting the injunction request by West Moberly First Nation to please stop doing irreversible damage until the legality of the dam is determined. Response? No, but that can be a court case one year before it is scheduled to be operational. That is NOT seeming like they have much concern about the case, hmmm?
And of course, that is part and parcel of the demonstration of a complete lack of faith vis a vis the Honour of the Crown, something that should actually be enough to cause protests and riots, if the public had the faintest clue about what it means.
The Honour of the Crown is the contract between the Crown and all that it has dealings with, both nations and it’s citizens.
If it is not upheld as a standard, no protection from the government or Crown has any meaning, even the Constitution and the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
Of course, in the unceded Western Territories of the First Nations indigenous to what is called British Columbia, since it exists in clear violation of the Royal Proclamation of 1763 that in theory established the existence of the Crown on this half of the continent in theory the Crown itself has no legal basis to exist here.
So who is going to enforce anything on a government that doesn’t actually exist according to it’s own laws?
In danger.
Thank you Margaret.