Premier Christy Clark and BC Green Leader Andrew Weaver set their sights on Site C as B.C.'s legislative assembly is set to return to work on Thursday.
Both made a stop in Fort St. John on Tuesday to meet with constituents and talk about the issues surrounding the controversial project, the future of which hangs in the balance depending on who takes, or keeps, control of the legislature in the coming week.
Clark spent lunch with Peace River MLAs Dan Davies and Mike Bernier, along with a handful of workers and contractors on the project before taking in a ground-level tour of the dam site. The $8.8-billion project is employing more than 2,200 workers, according to BC Hydro's latest employment figures.
"There isn't a real strong understanding in the Lower Mainland and Vancouver Island about why this matters so much, so I wanted to be able to take some of their stories home with me and be able to share them with people down south," Clark said.
One family spoke about almost losing their home in the midst of an oil and gas slowdown, Clark said, while others spoke about their struggles paying for medical treatment, or being allowed to home school their children with the work.
Clark says those livelihoods are in jeopardy if the dam is cancelled or delayed due to a B.C. Utilities Commission review. That's what the NDP and Greens propose to do, should they defeat Clark and her incumbent BC Liberals in a confidence vote expected next week.
"I wanted people in the Peace Country and across the province to know we're not going to forget how important these jobs are for people, and we are going to fight until our last breath to make sure these jobs are preserved and Site C goes ahead," Clark said.
Weaver, for his part, made his third trip up to the region alongside fellow Green MLAs Sonia Furstenau and Adam Olsen.
They met with West Moberly and Prophet River First Nation Chiefs Roland Willson and Lynette Tsakoza to visit cultural sites at Bear Flat that will be destroyed by the Highway 29 realignment needed as part of the dam's construction. They also met with the Boon and Meek families whose homes are in the path of the realignment, as well as representatives with the Christian Labour Association of Canada (CLAC), which represents more than 1,000 Site C workers.
Of primary concern right now is the looming highway realignment work, which Clark and BC Hydro says needs to begin this year or risk pushing the project's river diversion works behind one year at a cost of some $600 million.
The current realignment is proposed to go through a First Nations sweat lodge, burial site, and the Boon and Meek homes, which will either be moved or demolished.
"We listened to them because they felt they were not heard in terms of their concerns about the historic value, the cultural value and the spiritual value of their sites and they argued there was another option (for the realignment)," said Weaver.
"We felt that there questions were perfectly reasonable and that their case was quite compelling."
Under an accord with the BC NDP, Weaver is looking to topple Clark's government when she delivers her throne speech and budget in a confidence vote expected by June 29. The two parties have proposed to send Site C to the BC Utilities Commission for an expedited economic review under an NDP-led minority government.
Weaver, a former supporter of Site C, dismissed claims of a delay costing $600 million and said a utilities commission review will allow for an "appropriate" decision on the project moving forward. The project has lost Weaver's support over its rising costs over the years, estimated at $6 billion in 2009, to issues over indigenous rights.
"We're up here frankly because this is an important issue to us in our campaign, it's an economic issue that is actually quite devastating to the clean energy sector moving forward," Weaver said.
"The BC NDP has said put it to the BCUC. How that plays out, we're not sure. We have put trust in the BCUC process that the NDP wanted and hopefully the questions we discussed will be put there and they'll be addressed in a timely manner, and, as a result, decisions will be made that are appropriate."
The proposed review has prompted the CLAC to urge a meeting with both Weaver and NDP leader John Horgan.
"We had already planned to come up here so their letter was timely, so again, it's all about gathering information," Weaver said.
"We suspect we know the position they are coming from, but it'll be interesting to hear that directly from them. And I think it's a matter of respect, to be able to engage face to face with people who are affected by any decisions, to understand how those decisions are affecting them and why they do or do not support something."
But Clark says BC Hydro will have to pay the $600 million in penalty fees to contractors if work on the project is delayed.
She defended BC Hydro for choosing the "best alignment they could," and a 10 year process that looked at the project's economics and impacts on First Nations and the environment, and how to mitigate them.
She declined to speculate what a BCUC review would conclude if it reviews the project.
"This is a massive, complex project. There is no way they're going to be able to review it under a year. If this project is under review and on hold for a year, it's dead. That's the fact," she said.
"When the NDP say they want to review it, what they mean is they want to kill it."
B.C. has incredible water resources that are the envy of the world, Clark said, adding the death of Site C would be the loss of a "generational opportunity" that would have lasting impact on the province's economy.
"The problem with politicians is this: we get elected every four years and so it's really hard sometimes for politicians to look ahead and see a vision of the future that's isn't necessarily going to pay off today or tomorrow, but is going to pay off more than four years from now," she said.
"That takes leadership. I think fighting for this project is that kind of leadership, looking forward into a future where we're not necessarily going to see the benefits of that. I may not, but my son will."
