NTL: Power to the northwest's people?
By Derrick Penner
Vancouver Sun
May 30, 2009
A pro-development group makes the case for federal support of the project
A northern pro-development group is attempting to seize the dual zeitgeist of carbon reduction and economic stimulus to kick-start construction of a power transmission line into the remote northwest.
A $400-million plan to extend the BC Hydro grid 335 km up Highway 37 from Terrace was scuttled in 2007 when Teck suspended plans to build the multibillion-dollar Galore Creek mine 150 km northeast of Stewart, depriving the project of a key private-sector donor.
The project, however, deserves an injection from the federal government's $1-billion green infrastructure fund, a group calling itself the Northwest Powerline Coalition, argues, because it will take communities off diesel-generated electricity, and its construction will provide much needed economic activity in the depressed region.
"We're trying to support the provincial government's efforts to pursue federal funding [for the project]," Pierre Gratton, CEO of the Mining Association of B.C. and coalition member, said in an interview.
Ideally, the coalition would like to take the project one huge step further to extend the line another 117 km for a total of 517 km to reach Dease Lake and a total cost of about $600 million.
Last September, Premier Gordon Campbell committed $10 million to support an environmental review of the proposed 400-km power line.
The coalition estimates that building the line could reduce greenhouse-gas emissions by the equivalent of 35,000 cars just by taking the diesel generators that communities in the region rely on for power offline.
Further, the coalition's report estimates that providing mining companies with electricity to build and operate mines, versus developing them under diesel power, could save the province from adding emissions to the air equivalent to 629,000 cars.
Gratton said the province continues to say that it has $250 million to support the capital cost of the $400-million project, but it still needs other sources of financing; the coalition makes the case that this project fits the bill as a "shovel-ready" project ripe for some of the economic stimulus spending that governments have promised.
"In our business, infrastructure is and always will be one of the precursors to new investment," Gratton said, adding that there is $15 billion worth of proposed mining and power projects in the region that could benefit from the transmission line.
Janine North, co-chair of the coalition and CEO of the provincially sponsored Northern Development Initiative Trust, said the group "advocates for a partnership funding strategy" to develop the project.
The coalition is made up of 49 municipalities and regional districts, first nations communities, the Mining Association of B.C. and the Northern Development Initiative Trust, and was formed just after the powerline project was scuttled.
"It's not just about one potential mine, it's about a huge mineralized area of Northern B.C. that also has great potential for biomass power, hydro run-of-river power and geothermal power," North said.
Elmer Derrick, chief treaty negotiator for the Gitxsan First Nation and the coalition's other co-chair, said construction alone of the power line would offer his community employment opportunities and chances to learn transferable skills.
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HIGHWAY 37 PROJECT
Length: 200 km.
Capital cost: $600 million
Greenhouse-gas-emission savings: 208,000 tonnes annually, the equivalent of 35,000 cars
Greenhouse-gas-emissions avoided: 3.7 million tonnes annually, the equivalent of 629,000 cars
Source: Northwest Powerline Coalition
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Posted by Arthur Caldicott on 30 May 2009