PRESS RELEASE

TSAWWASSEN RESIDENTS AGAINST HIGHER VOLTAGE OVERHEAD LINES

August 2, 2005

Provincial Government endorses plan to expropriate 150 families, reneging on pre-election promises regarding power lines in Tsawwassen – residents begin legal action.

Residents in Tsawwassen are outraged after learning that the provincial government does not appear firmly committed to a previous agreement not to construct high voltage overhead power lines and are endorsing plans to underground lines through the backyards of 150 families. The current proposal submitted by the British Columbia Transmission Corporation (BCTC) late June to the B.C. Utilities Commission may require expropriation to route the lines underground in the existing hydro right-of-way as BCTC does not have the legal rights to proceed.

Last March residents were informed by BCTC and the government that the plan to construct high voltage overhead towers would be scraped due to community concerns and that BCTC would look for an alternate route. Despite letters written to residents from Richard Neufeld, Minister of Energy and Mines and Delta South MLA Valerie Roddick which state that “new overhead lines will not be constructed”, a recent letter sent from Neufeld to the residents’ group on July 25th states: “This comment was not intended to be interpreted as a government direction given to BCTC to pursue a specific course of action”.

The Tsawwassen Resident’s Against Higher Voltage Overhead lines (TRAHVOL) had asked the minister to reconfirm his pre-election commitment due to concerns that BCTC had not ruled out reverting to the overhead proposal in their application to the BCUC if unsuccessful in obtaining legal rights to the underground route. TRAHVOL spokesperson Maureen Broadfoot says “Unfortunately many people in Tsawwassen now see this as nothing more than an election ploy to secure a seat in South Delta. Given the recent criticism of BC Hydro and the provincial government surrounding the failure of Duke Point, strong community opposition should be taken seriously. We shouldn’t have to resort to legal action to fight an illegal proposal from a crown corporation.”

On May31st BCTC announced that they would submit a plan to underground lines in the existing right-of-way and leave one set of existing aerial lines in place, sparking community outrage due to the many impacts on the community associated with these high voltage lines. “We believe that this industrial scale transmission system in out-of-place and out-of-scale in a residential neighborhood. BCTC has not engaged in proper public consultation and has not done due diligence to explore other viable alternatives”, says Cecil Dunn, Co-chair of TRAHVOL.

The government denied TRAHVOL’s request to delay filing of the application to pursue other routes. TRAHVOL has retained a lawyer and will begin arguing their case with the B.C. Utilities Commission this Thursday, August 4^th at the Procedural Conference for the upcoming commission hearings.

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For more information, please contact: Maureen Broadfoot (604) 943-1656 or (604) 230-9800.