Bulkley River (Credit: CanadaGood via Flickr)
Last November, B.C. Premier Gordon Campbell announced the formation of the Green Energy Advisory Task Force, consisting of four appointed panels who were given less than three months to develop recommendations to "ensure B.C. remains a leader in clean and renewable energy by developing resources, maximizing opportunities and establishing B.C.'s potential as the supplier of choice for clean power."
I understand that the Task Forces have now completed their work, although I don't know when the deadline to submit their recommendations was because that information was not made public. The recommendations that the four Task Forces made to Government are a secret. And while the process allowed British Columbians to make submissions to the Task Force via a website — which we and many other organizations did — it also accepted confidential submissions. Which is to say, the panel's secret recommendations are informed, to an unknown extent, by enigmatic submissions from anonymous sources.
At one level, the muddy and opaque nature of this process is ironic, given that one of the Task Forces was asked to ensure First Nations and communities "see clear benefits" from "clean energy" and have "a clear opportunity for input" during project development; another group was asked to "enhance clarity" and "certainty" in BC Hydro's processes. But beyond the word-play, this secretive process is profoundly counter-productive for the government. The Task Force initiative is, after all, the Liberal government's response to widespread public opposition regarding a permitting and development process for new power plants that does not allow for public input. As the Pembina Institute and David Suzuki Foundation have told the premier, a closed-door process to amend a secretive and unaccountable development process only deepens suspicions the public may harbour about the government and its approach to hydro development.
Now that the recommendations have apparently been submitted to government, the first step to building public trust is for government to make these recommendations public. Equally importantly, the public needs to have access to the information that the Task Forces themselves did when they came up with these recommendations.
Together with 25 other organizations, the David Suzuki Foundation believes that we can achieve a green and prosperous future for B.C. - one in which a strong, low-impact renewable energy sector plays an important role — but we don't think this can happen without regaining the public's trust in the development process. Hiding the inputs to and recommendations from the Task Force on Energy Policy is a poor way to start.
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10:19 AM
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