City may lose control over power producers

By Dan Hilborn
Published May 27, 2006


Burnaby is lending its support to the City of Squamish and other resource-based communities in B.C. in demanding the province give local governments meaningful input when independent power companies try to build new facilities in their communities.

Coun. Lee Rankin said recently proposed amendments to the Utilities Commission Act are reminiscent of what happened in the 1990s, when the Glen Clark NDP government capped the property assessments on railway lands in municipalities.

"Implicit in both actions is the notion that local governments cannot be trusted to act responsibly," Rankin said.

The proposed amendments, which received first reading in the B.C. legislature on April 27, would allow independent power producers to contravene municipal bylaws that regulate zoning, nuisance, signage, hours of operation, noise and sound abatement and streamside protection.

Rankin said the changes strike him as odd because most local governments recognize the importance of economic development in their communities and are typically supportive of projects that would benefit their residents.

Coun. Dan Johnston said the move makes a mockery of the province's Community Charter legislation, which also promised to have more meaningful consultation with local governments. "I just don't get the provincial government. They've got the big hammer, and they're going to use it," Johnston said.

Mayor Derek Corrigan said the lack of local government consultation is understandable in light of the number of independent power producers who made financial donations to the B.C. Liberal party over the past few years.

He said the water licences needed to operate a small-scale hydroelectric project cost only $10,000 apiece and can result in huge profits.

"You can make millions of dollars from other people's birthright, which is the water flowing off our mountains and glaciers," said Corrigan, who noted that a series of provincial governments have ignored the need to build more public-owned hydroelectric facilities over the past two decades.

"As usual, it's up to the little municipalities to stand up for integrity and the environment," said Corrigan, who noted that there is only one independent power producing facility in Burnaby - a turbine attached to the GVRD garbage incinerator in the Big Bend, which generates enough power for 15,000 homes annually.

Corrigan also expressed disappointment about the fact that the province offers a sales tax exemption to private energy producers, but not when local governments own the means of power generation.

"The idea is to put the municipalities at a disadvantage," Corrigan said. "Here they are taxing the pubic sector - taxing the homeowner - when they're not charging the same tax to the private sector."