Energy task force members green B.C. Liberal party coffers

NDP environment critic Rob Fleming calls it “a pay-as-you-go system”.

The Victoria-Swan Lake MLA is talking about more than $250,000 in donations to the B.C. Liberals made by individuals—or their companies—whom B.C. energy minister Blair Lekstrom selected to sit on four green energy advisory task forces.

These advisory task forces, which compose the larger Green Energy Advisory Task Force announced by Premier Gordon Campbell on November 2, have until January 2010 to report back to the provincial government with recommendations on energy policy.

They are accepting submissions from the public until December 31.

Of the 29 individuals listed as members of the four task forces, 12 can be linked to campaign contributions recorded by Elections B.C.

Cheryl Slusarchuk, chair of the advisory task force on carbon pricing, trading and export market development, made personal donations to B.C. Liberal coffers totalling $9,350 between 2005 and 2009. In addition, $5,000 is listed as a single 2009 donation from Cheryl Slusarchuk Law Corp. Slusarchuk is a partner with the law firm McCarthy Tetrault, which donated $27,970 between 2005 and 2009.

Duncan McCallum, a partner with the public sector and infrastructure group at RBC Capital Markets, is a member of the advisory task force on procurement and regulatory reform. The Royal Bank of Canada and its subsidiaries gave $93,200 in total through 24 separate payments between 2005 and 2009.

Campbell’s press secretary, Bridgitte Anderson, said the premier was in Quebec City partaking in the Olympic torch relay. She referred the Straight to Lekstrom’s office, which did not make the minister available by deadline.

Wilderness Committee national campaign director Joe Foy told the Straight he thought that the level of money involved meant B.C.’s auditor general “absolutely” needs to investigate.

“I think that the auditor general needs to look at the whole thing: the task force, the B.C. Energy Plan, the amount of money,” Foy said by phone.

He earlier stated, “People should be outraged, for instance, that at the same time these campaign donations are made, this government has set it up so that the contracts that B.C. Hydro is forced to sign with these [private power] companies are secret. People aren’t allowed to see them. That frankly should be against the law. It’s a ton of ratepayers’ money.”

This past summer, the B.C. Utilities Commission ruled that B.C. Hydro’s 2008 Long Term Acquisition Plan was “not in the public interest”, only to have its decision overturned by the government. The plan had relied heavily on long-term power-purchase agreements with independent power producers.

“I mean, the B.C. Utilities Commission jumped in and said, ”˜Hold it, put on the brakes,’ and they were whacked to the side,” Foy said. “I think the auditor-general needs to step up.”

Other members on the task forces who donated or whose companies donated to the B.C. Liberals include James Hoggan (Hoggan and Associates), Jeff Christian (Lawson Lundell), Warren Brazier (Clark Wilson), David Andrews (Cloudworks Energy), Craig Lodge (Pinnacle Pellet), Craig Aspinall (Western GeoPower Corporation), Paul Hemsley (Hemmera), Jonathan Rhone (Nexterra), John Keating (Canadian Hydro Developers), and John Walker (FortisBC).

Comments

27 Comments

No problems in BC?

Dec 3, 2009 at 9:52pm

Someone should tell David Suzuki.

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MikeBC

Dec 4, 2009 at 4:09am

Is this the same Wilderness Committee complaining, that has people sitting on the board of BC Hydro's union front organizations? Maybe Joe Foy should disclose his conflicts of interest before calling the kettle black.

Maybe he can explain why some BC Hydro journeymen make $260,000 a year in salary?

How can a guy whose job is to cut wires make so much money off the ratepayers???

See
http://www2.canada.com/vancouversun/features/public-sector-salary-databa...

Enter salary range and get a description of the job.

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Granite

Dec 4, 2009 at 4:15am

Joe Foy is wrong. The BCUC did not say private energy production should be stopped. That would impoverish the province.

BCUC said that BC Hydro's long term power plan was incomplete and ambiguous, especially in matters related to conservation, and they should file again by July 2010.

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Seriously?

Dec 4, 2009 at 8:50am

So I guess the NDP never made appointments from their campaign contributors when they were in government. You can bet the Green party, and any party for that matter, would do the same. This isn't news, nor is there anything to investigate. Get serious.

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RodSmelser

Dec 4, 2009 at 5:27pm

http://www.greenenergytaskforce.gov.bc.ca/faq.html

Hugh, thanks for that link. By going to the accompanying FAQs one learns the completely unsurprising news that three of Premier Gordon M. Campbell's most prominent environmental endorsers in the May 12th election have been appointed to one or another of these panels:

James Hoggan, president of Hoggan and Associates and chair of the David Suzuki Foundation is chairing the panel on community engagement.

Tzeporah Berman, executive director and co-founder of PowerUp Canada and Co-Founder of ForestEthics and Matt Horne, director of Energy Solutions for the Pembina Institute are on the panel on resource development.

The FAQs state that panel members will not be paid, but their expenses will be reimbursed, which in principle seems fair enough.

To no one's suprise, there is no one from labour on these panels, which are heavily tilted towards business people. But as far as I can tell, there are no academics, even on the resource development panel, and its not that the Liberals lack for friends in universities, so that is a surprise.

Rod Smelser

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Jon Surpa

Dec 4, 2009 at 8:54pm

Instead of character assassination, can you come up with a better reason why these folks should be disqualified?

I guess its cheap to tear things down but difficult for the naysayer to build anything of value.

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sceptical

Dec 4, 2009 at 10:50pm

It doesn't matter who is on the panels because it is sham exercise. How could these issues possibly be addressed properly in less than 2 months over Christmas? The Libs know what they want to hear and this crowd can be expected to cooperate.

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seth

Dec 5, 2009 at 10:30am

This whole IPP thing will remembered by all a few years down the road as the crime of the century. A patronage heavy blue ribbon panel is just part of the scam.

Media people who were such prolific writers on fast ferries and politicians on both sides of the house will be vilified and hopefully is there is a way charged with criminal breach of trust because of their willful inaction on this subject. The fast ferry scandal was like a rainy Saturday at a schoolgirl's lemonade stand compared to the financial malfeasance exhibited here.

$55 billion dollars in 40 year contracts to buy a little over 1 gigawatt baseload equiv of power, BC Hydro doesn't need and must sell for a 80% loss on the springtime spot market. For the same amount of power, nuclear would cost $3.0 billion today and $1.2 billion when mass produced reactor builds begin - 2 to 5% the cost of the 40 year contracts with party friends and insiders. These contracts triple BC's public debt but because of slick accounting procedures are reported as a financial footnote rather than on the balance sheets. Cowardly BC pundits with the exception of Rafe Mair refuse to touch the issue.

Gordo's $55B in power will be worthless in a little as ten years – 30 years left on the contracts - with ultracheap new nuclear fusion and nuclear waste burning Gen IV reactors coming on line.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/steve-kirsch/climate-bill-ignores-our_b_22...

Short term look for a more than doubling of power rates within 3 years now that BCHydro has effectively been privatized. Long term look for a BCHydro bankruptcy as industrial electricity users move to low cost nuclear powered Washington state and Alberta.
seth

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Raymondo

Dec 5, 2009 at 9:35pm

Seth - you mean BC Hydro buying Ashlu IPP power at 5.5 cents for 40 years while the market price of green and renewable power is 10 cents and going up, is a bad deal? I wonder if you can do the mathematics? And then BC Hydro's own project cost them 12 cents to produce power!

Nuclear "fusion"? What have you been smoking lately?

Did you see the salary list for BC Hydro union wire cutters who make $280,000 a year in remuneration? This why you need market discipline and competition for BC Hydro.

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