Norske powered by Gary Collins?

Bill Tieleman
24 Hours
Tuesday July 5, 2005

COMMENT: Often an entertaining read, Bill Tieleman ought also to pay close attention to his facts. Get key points wrong, and the credibility of the whole column suffers.

In this article, he claims that Norske already burns natural gas to generate electricity. I don't think so. Norske burns gas to produce heat for steam processes, mainly.

He says Norske is burning coal to generate electricity at Elk Falls and proposed a similar venture in Crofton. The coal is burned to create steam at Elk Falls, not electricity. In the Crofton proposal, Norske was going to burn railway ties, tire pellets, and coal, in a steam boiler. That project has now been shelved, thanks in large part to the Crofton Airshed Citizens Group (www.croftonair.org).

Coal is burned in BC, though people tend not to be aware of the fact. It is all in thermal applications - cement plants, Elk Falls. None is burned yet, to produce electricity.

What is coming, however, is an assault of projects proposing to burn coal for electricity generation. The death of Duke Point may well have improved the chances for coal.

The most advanced of these now is by Compliance Energy, a small company that holds coal rights in the Tulameen, near Princeton, as well as on Vancouver Island. Compliance is applying for an air emissions permit for a 49 megawatt coal-fired plant to be located at the old Similco mine site near Princeton.

The provincial goverment has rejected arguments that this project, which could be BC's first coal-fired generation plant, should undergo an environmental assessment, despite being 1 MW under the reviewable projects threshold. Not surprising, given that the Liberals have been promising to open up BC for coal-fired plants since 2001, and have taken hundreds of thousands of dollars from Teck Cominco & Fording & the Elk Valley Coal Corporation, BC's biggest coal miners, who make no secret of wanting to build a big coal plant in the East Kootenays.

But I digress. Back to Bill Tieleman. Norske also shelved its proposals for electricity generation projects at its island mills. It will be interesting to see if they are resurrected in BC Hydro's next call for proposals.

Almost certainly, there will be coal fired projects in the next call, including at least one from Compliance, and another from Hillsborough Resources, owner of the Quinsam mine in Campbell River.

"A good intention clothes itself with power." -- Ralph Waldo Emerson

Environmentalists celebrated with glee June 17 when BC Hydro abandoned the Duke Point natural gas power plant and the $120 million it had invested over 11 years.

But also in a party hearty mood was forest industry giant Norske Canada and former B.C. Liberal Finance Minister Gary Collins.

That's because Norske stands to make tens of millions in profits by producing electricity at its pulp and paper mills and selling it to an energy-starved Vancouver Island.

And who became the newest member of Norske's board of directors just six weeks before the B.C. Liberal-appointed board of BC Hydro pulled the plug on Duke Point? Why, Gary Collins.

But environmentalists have several reasons to put the champagne cork back in the bottle.

After all, Norske also produces power by burning natural gas. But in addition, Norske is testing producing electricity by burning coal - yes, coal - at its Elk Falls pulp mill near Campbell River.

Norske only recently shelved its controversial plan to burn creosote-soaked old railway ties, rubber tires, coal and waste wood to produce electricity at its Crofton plant on Vancouver Island. It was public pressure, including a rock concert protest by Neil Young and Randy Bachman last September, that convinced Norske to back off.

Could potential windfall profits convince Norske to burn rubber for money once again?

That Gary Collins would join the Norske board is hardly surprising - it is one of the most Liberally connected corporations in B.C., donating $25,000 to the party since 2001.

Gordon Campbell's government has ensured that Norske representatives practically control health care in Vancouver.

Keith Purchase, the B.C. Liberal-appointed chair of the Vancouver Coastal Health Authority, is a Norske board member. J. Trevor Johnston, also on the Norske board, is another VCHA director.

And who is the Vancouver Coastal CEO who reports to Purchase and Johnston?

Ida Goodreau, who was a Norske senior vice-president in Norway before taking the Vancouver Coastal job for $323,000 a year.

Want more Norske? Current BC Hydro board member Wanda Costuros was formerly vice-president of Finance for Fletcher Challenge Canada, which was taken over in 2000 by - Norske.

Questions need to be asked about how much Norske will profit from spearheading efforts to kill Hydro's Duke Point project.

And Collins will profit too. Collins, who is now CEO of Harmony Airways, will earn $25,000 a year for sitting on the Norske board, plus $1,500 per board meeting, plus $9,000 for sitting on board committees, plus $1,200 per committee meeting.

That adds up to about $50,000 annually - a lot more than a lump of burning coal.

Bill Tieleman appears regularly on CBC Radio's Early Edition (AM 690)
e-mail: weststar@telus.net

Bill Tieleman on the Rafe Mair show, 11 Jul 2005 (13 mb WAV)

Rafe Mair editorial, 13 Jul 2005 (9 mb WAV)

Note: these sound files from the Rafe Mair Show are WAV files, for which you need Windows Media Player.