B.C. government to decide on Site C on Tuesday

Site C | BCBusiness
A rending of the proposed Site C dam.

The province will decide the fate of the proposed $8.5 billion (and growing) mega dam on Tuesday

Four decades after BC Hydro first proposed a mega dam on the Peace River, the B.C. government is set to make a final decision on the project, according to a press release sent out on Monday afternoon. Minister of Energy and Mines Bill Bennett will announce the government’s decision in a one-hour press conference Tuesday afternoon. The dam is a “generational opportunity,” or so said rookie BC Hydro CEO Jessica McDonald in an interview with BCBusiness. If constructed, the dam could meet B.C.’s future energy demands, said McDonald, which the utility expects will increase by 40 per cent by 2034, thereby “keep[ing] rates low over the long-term.” But opponents—First Nations and environmental groups among them—have expressed concern over the project’s ever increasing price tag, recently adjusted to $8.5 billion.