Energy & The Environment

04/03/24 • 87 min

In December the BC Utilities Commission (BCUC) quashed FortisBC’s plans to build a natural gas pipeline in the Okanagan – a $327 million project that would have seen a 30-kilometer line and two related power stations built to meet growing demand for gas in BC’s southern interior.

FortisBC is warning that without additional natural gas transport capacity the region could start experience natural gas shortages in the winter of 2026/27, less than three years from now.

The reason? The BCUC found the plan did not account for a downturn in demand for natural gas as the province moves away from generating energy from fossil fuels and adopting more clean energy. The regulator found the forecast demand “is highly unlikely to occur.”

BCUC’s chair & CEO and the President & CEO of Fortis BC are part of our panel for a conversation about Energy & The Environment April 2. The panel:

Mark Jaccard, Chair and CEO of the BC Utilities Commission
Roger Dall’Antonia, President & CEO, FortisBC
Karen Tam Wu, Climate action advocate & policy advisor
Barry Penner, Chair of the Energy Futures Initiative
Andras Vlaszak, Director, Energy Transition Project Development & Finance, Global Infrastructure Advisory, KPMG

There’s no question the climate is changing and urgent action is needed. But is increasing electricity use the answer for BC?

Shortly after the BCUC decision BC Hydro revealed it imported about 20 per cent of the electricity British Columbians consumed last year – due both to constrained generation as drought reduced the water available at hydro dams and increasing demand as our population grows and we drive more electric vehicles and install more heat pumps in our homes.

Most of that imported power came from Washington State, California, and Alberta. According to the California Energy Commission and the US Energy Information Administration California and Washington State produce environmentally sound power from sources including hydro, solar, nuclear, and geothermal – but also from burning natural gas, biomass, and even coal. As for Alberta, according to the Canada Energy Regulator that province generates 89 per cent of its power from burning coal and natural gas.

The Site C Dam is set to come online this year and will help increase our available supply of hydro power, but the amount BC Hydro imported in 2023 is twice that facility’s predicted annual production.

Water levels are low due to drought again this year, and a recent report is warning the combination of increasing demand and generation constraints will only get worse in coming years, even with Site C.

What’s the answer to this very complex challenge?

We hope you can join us for the conversation – on webcast 7 p.m. April 2.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

FortisBC is warning that without additional natural gas transport capacity the region could start experience natural gas shortages in the winter of 2026/27, less than three years from now.

BCUC’s chair & CEO and the President & CEO of Fortis BC are part of our panel for a conversation about Energy & The Environment April 2. The panel:

Mark Jaccard, Chair and CEO of the BC Utilities Commission
Roger Dall’Antonia, President & CEO, FortisBC
Karen Tam Wu, Climate action advocate & policy advisor
Barry Penner, Chair of the Energy Futures Initiative
Andras Vlaszak, Director, Energy Transition Project Development & Finance, Global Infrastructure Advisory, KPMG

There’s no question the climate is changing and urgent action is needed. But is increasing electricity use the answer for BC?

What’s the answer to this very complex challenge?

We hope you can join us for the conversation – on webcast 7 p.m. April 2.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Previous Episode

Tent City Nation: A special edition

Our media partner Postmedia is taking a closer look at the troubling issues of tent cities in an in-depth investigation. Join us 11 a.m. PT March 12 for a special edition of Conversations Live with Stuart McNish where we will take on this critical matter with Postmedia and a panel of people facing this issue in their work every day.

The impacts of tent cities are intensely local and personal – for both the homeless residents struggling to get through the day and the people living in the neighbourhoods around them. Yet far being isolated local issues tent encampments have become a national crisis, a reality for far too many communities across Canada - including many small towns.

By one estimate some 235,000 people now experience homelessness in Canada every year, and about a quarter of those stayed in a tent encampment. These ad hoc communities are often miserable - densely packed, dangerous, cold, and attractive to predators targeting vulnerable residents. Residents trying to stay warm resort to open flames and propane tanks inside tents, causing very real fire risk.

Yet, what option to their residents have? Like all of us they need a warm, safe place to sleep. Municipal and provincial governments are forming teams to take on this issue, but fact is there just isn’t sufficient shelter space and safe housing, let alone critical social service supports.

Encampments have become an issue of fundamental human rights and safety. But there is no clear way forward.

We hope you can join us for this national conversation – on webcast 11 a.m. PT March 12.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Next Episode

One-on-one with Premier David Eby

On April 23 we will sit down for a 90-minute conversation with Premier David Eby – live and unscripted.

When we sat down with Mr. Eby a year ago he had been premier for just over 100 days. More than a year later the honeymoon is over.

Just this week S&P downgraded the province’s credit rating, expressing concern about BC’s financial health and rising operating deficit. BC’s most recent budget forecasts a record deficit of almost $8 billion for 2024-05.

For the first time in a decade more people left BC for other provinces in 2023.

Drug decriminalization is also in the news this week as it’s come to light nurses are dealing with rampant drug use and dealing in hospitals, while workers at some Victoria supportive housing sites are being provided respirators to avoid toxic drug smoke exposure.

The economy, housing, cost of living, transportation, tent encampments, drug decriminalization and deaths, healthcare, crime, gang warfare, bail reform, policing and the Surrey police transition, school overcrowding, extreme weather due to climate change, carbon taxes, rising antisemitism and islamophobia.

A challenging time to be BC’s premier, and an election is looming.

Join us for this special edition, 3:30 p.m. April 23 by webcast. We will take your questions for the premier on Slido.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.