TSAWWASSEN RESIDENTS AGAINST HIGHER VOLTAGE OVERHEAD
LINES
C/O 1558 – 53A Street
Delta, BC V4M 3G2
July 29, 2005
Attention: The Honourable Richard Neufeld, Minister of Energy and Mines
Dear Minister,
Further to your response of July 25th to the Tsawwassen Residents Against Higher Voltage Overhead Lines (TRAHVOL), you appear to be retracting the firm commitment made on behalf of the government to thousands of residents, not to proceed with construction of overhead power lines in residential areas of Tsawwassen. This commitment was stated in letters from you, on behalf of the Premier and our local MLA Valerie Roddick and reconfirmed in an email sent to TRAHVOL on June 10th:
“ Val spoke with Minister Neufeld yesterday in Victoria. He stands
by his email to you on April 1 that 230 kilovolt overhead lines will not be
constructed along the 4 kilometre section of the existing right-of-way in
Tsawwassen. Whatever interpretation was understood or represented at the
information meeting, overhead lines will not be constructed.”
Your July 25th letter appears to be in blatant contradiction to your statement that “overhead lines will not be constructed” in which you indicate: “This comment was not intended to be interpreted as a government direction to BCTC to pursue a specific course of action”. If the B.C. Utilities Commission is unilaterally responsible for regulation of BCTC, a crown corporation, as suggested in your letter, why did you strongly commit to this course of action? The government should not be making promises that impact the health, well-being and financial security of hundreds of residents, which you are not prepared to keep.
In
addition, BCTC has falsely claimed that residents support the proposed
underground route stating it was “the community’s first request” in a brochure
distributed on May 31st when the route was announced. In fact, TRAHVOL’s staunch opposition to
this route was communicated in a meeting with BCTC and reinforced in an email
sent from Maureen Broadfoot to Jane Peverett and Dennis Maniago on May 25th: “As discussed in the meeting, we were alarmed
to see that one of the route options currently being considered by BCTC is to
underground the lines in the existing right-of-way and retain the existing
overhead lines.
We sincerely hope that
BCTC is considering the socio-economic impacts of this project. Burdening this
community with both sets of transmission lines until 2018 is completely
unacceptable and we will make every effort to prevent this from
happening.”
Our local MLA Valerie Roddick, expressed to two members of TRAHVOL on May 25th that BCTC was “playing games with ordinary citizens” in misleading the residents that the current right-of-way would not be considered for the new transmission lines and that an alternate route would be recommended. She contacted Donna McGeachie at BCTC on this date to express this personally.
We are appalled that the government appears to condone the current plan to expropriate 147 families to underground lines through the backyards of our homes, four neighborhood parks including the high school sports field and near a day care center, given that there are several viable alternatives. As you are aware, BCTC does not have legal rights to this underground route. One hundred percent of the residents have indicated they are not going to grant access to their backyards, which will severely limit usability of these private properties due to a number of concerns and restrictions.
Our community has been dealing with this very stressful situation for over eight months, and we must now spend at least another six months of our time and energy acting as intervenors in the upcoming commission hearings. We are outraged that we must also incur significant financial costs to fund legal council to defend our properties and protect our children’s health. As you are fully aware, the largest research study ever conducted on transmission lines and childhood cancer published this June from Oxford University reported that children living near high voltage lines are 70 percent more likely to develop childhood leukemia (The Draper Report). BCTC is not complying with the World Health Organization’s policy of “prudent avoidance” to safely route these lines away from our homes and schools.
We are exasperated by the actions of BCTC and the provincial government in allowing this proposal to be put forward to the commission and are disillusioned with the lack of public consultation, lack of concern for the community and failure to stick to previous commitments, which we believed were made in good faith from your ministry, our MLA and Premier Campbell.
TRAHVOL will continue to fight to defend our rights to our properties and protect our children’s health through whatever means necessary, including legal action, until a safe route is established.
As per our previous request, we had hoped to discuss these concerns with you personally, but have not have not been successful in arranging a meeting through your office. We reiterate our request for a meeting with you.
Sincerely,
Neil Atchison, P.Eng. Cecil
Dunn
Co-chair Co-chair
T (604) 318-2825 T
(604) 943-9276
neil.atchison@telus.net cec.dunn@telus.net
cc: Premier Gordon Campbell
Honourable Valerie Roddick – MLA
Delta South
Honourable John Cummins – Member of Parliament
Honourable Wally Oppal – Attorney General
Honourable Carole James, Leader of the NDP Party
Honourable Guy Gentner, Opposition Critic, Crown Corporations
Honorable Corky Evans, Opposition Critic, Energy and Mines
Mayor Jackson and Council – Corporation of Delta
George Harvie – CAO – Corporation of Delta
Joan
Hesketh - Executive Director, BCEAO
Delta
School Board
Bob Elton – President and CEO – BC Hydro
Robert H. Hobbs, Chair, BCUC
Robert J. Pellatt, Commission Secretary, BCUC
Jane Peverett, President and CEO – BCTC
BCTC Board of Directors
Dennis Maniago- Vice President –System
Planning- BCTC
Delta School Board
The Vancouver Sun
The Province
Business in Vancouver
CBC
CKNW
Delta Optimist
South Delta Leader