British Columbia Minute: Issue 122

British Columbia Minute - Your weekly one-minute summary of British Columbia politics.

📅 This Week In British Columbia: 📅

• BC Hydro says it has now spent $14.9 billion building the Site C hydroelectric dam on the Peace River near Fort St. John, according to the Crown utility's latest progress report to the British Columbia Utilities Commission. The utility says the project, recently renamed the John Horgan Dam and Generating Station, remains on track to finish within its (revised) $16-billion budget, though it acknowledges that some cost risks remain. The former BC Liberal government approved the dam in 2014 with an $8.8-billion budget, a figure that nearly doubled after two reviews ordered by John Horgan's NDP government in 2017 and 2020 found major geotechnical problems and pandemic-related delays. The project's largest contracts have grown substantially over the past decade, with the main civil works contract to build the earthen dam rising from $1.75 billion to $3.35 billion and the generating station and spillways contract climbing from $1.6 billion to $3.17 billion. BC Hydro says the dam was more than 94% complete as of March 31st and became fully operational last August, adding about 8% to the province's total generating capacity. It calls Site C the largest public infrastructure project in BC history, with final accounting expected in 2028.
  
  
• Enbridge has broken ground on a $4-billion expansion of its West Coast natural gas pipeline system, marked by a ceremony in Prince George attended by federal Energy and Natural Resources Minister Tim Hodgson and BC Jobs and Economic Growth Minister Ravi Kahlon. The Sunrise Expansion Program will add up to 300 million cubic feet per day of transportation capacity by installing five 42-inch pipeline loops along the southern portion of the system, which runs from near Chetwynd to the Canada-US border in the Fraser Valley. Minister Hodgson said it took just three months to break ground after the project received federal approval [Editor: Which sounds great until you realize that he's bragging about the speed of the part of the process that the company was responsible for, and that the part of the process the government was responsible for took more than three years!] Enbridge says the expansion will create 2,500 jobs, add more than $3 billion to Canada's GDP, and generate $700 million in tax revenue, including about $2.4 million a year in municipal property taxes to the Fraser-Fort George Regional District over 35 years. The groundbreaking comes shortly after Canfor announced it would permanently close its Northwood pulp mill in Prince George, putting roughly 300 people out of work. Enbridge says the project will be completed near the end of 2028.
  
  
• Premier David Eby says there is "not a chance in hell" that British Columbia liquor stores will resume stocking US alcohol, rejecting a demand tied to President Donald Trump's latest tariff threat. The Trump administration lists the removal of American alcohol from BC liquor shelves among the Canadian trade practices it calls unfair, and has scheduled a new 50% tariff on a range of Canadian goods, including several BC-made forestry products such as wooden furniture, to take effect August 19th. At the first ministers meeting in Charlottetown, Eby went further, calling for Canada to consider blocking US access to critical minerals, arguing that it makes no sense for the US to destabilize Canadian export industries while seeking greater access to Canada's mineral wealth. Analysts expect the new tariffs to hit Ontario, Quebec, and BC hardest, with one estimate suggesting 13.7% of BC exports will be affected, the highest proportion of any province. Forests Minister Ravi Parmar said the tariffs on wood products would harm BC forestry and deepen the long-running softwood lumber dispute, raising costs for Americans and hurting Canadian workers. Ontario Premier Doug Ford has similarly suggested blocking oil and potash exports to the US, an idea quickly shut down by Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe, whose province is the country's sole potash producer. 
  
  
• Eby also says BC businesses will have access to a $1.5-billion federal emergency fund if the US follows through on its latest tariff threats on August 19th. Eby says Prime Minister Mark Carney told him the support fund has not been exhausted and should hold more than enough for affected BC businesses. The Premier cautioned, however, that the tariff plan is already costing BC businesses by creating uncertainty, and said the sooner the dispute is resolved the better. Speaking from Charlottetown, where he met with other first ministers, Eby again ruled out returning US alcohol to BC store shelves, a move Trump has demanded, saying none of the provinces that pulled American products intends to restock them and that the boycott remains a significant point of leverage for Canada. He said the premiers of provinces with large softwood lumber sectors will also hold a separate meeting on the sector.
  
  
• Emily Ohler, the Chair of the British Columbia Human Rights Tribunal, is stepping down nearly two years before her term ends, citing a growing caseload and insufficient resources. In a July 6th statement, Ohler said she had found it increasingly difficult to keep making the same requests for tools the tribunal had needed "since the start," and will leave at the end of November rather than staying until August 2028. The tribunal, a quasi-judicial body that receives and adjudicates complaints under the BC Human Rights Code, had roughly 6,000 complaints open at the end of the 2025 fiscal year, about twice as many as four years earlier. Its decisions have drawn criticism from some conservative politicians, including Independent MLA Tara Armstrong, who in February brought a bill to repeal the Human Rights Code and abolish the tribunal. That bill, introduced after the tribunal ordered former Chilliwack school trustee Barry Neufeld to pay $750,000 for discriminatory conduct and hate speech, was defeated on first reading. A funding increase in 2023 and a backlog strategy slowed the growth in active cases, but did not clear it.

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