Monkey Business - Or Socialist Bureaucrats at Work!

In today's G&M Business section: News about Alcan and Socialist Government Idiots!

In a move that Hugo Chavez would be proud to claim as his own .......

The BC Utilities Commission (BCUC) has denied the aluminum mining and smelting company Alcan the right to determine the value of electrical power it generates with it's own facilities and to sell that power at market rates.

Alcan was granted water rights and the permission to generate hydro-electricity for it's operations at Kitimat BC back in 1950 where it built the two dams and generating facilities at both Kitimat and Komano for a cost of $500million at the time. Alcan was allowed to sell excess power back to the provinces Hydro Utility BC Hydro for market rates. The province got private investors to pay for two generating stations and got power for no more than it would have paid for the same from any other source.

Now Alcan has a proposed $2Billion expansion set up to get underway at Kitimat and a signed deal with BC Hydro to continue purchase of excess power at market rates for the next 20 years.
Still a good deal for the province and for the Utility because they get more capacity for the future without having to pony up the capital investment ( make the taxpayers pay for it). In addition the large smelting operation grows providing more employment and the lifeline of the community is extended another 20 years.

But is this good enough for the meddling socialists in BCUC? Hell no!
BCUC has refused to allow Alcan and BC Hydro to follow through on the deal.
Aside from all the legal ramifications, just what sense does this make?

Well to a thinking person living in the real world none!
But to those witless tools at BCUC it's better to try to strong arm the business and screw it's investors along with the community involved than to allow a private enterprise to benefit from it's own investment.
Alcan has served notice that it will withdraw from the project, effectively putting an end to the community of Kitimat!
Thanks to people like the directors of BCUC ...... The province of BC is surely becoming a Canadian version of Hugo Chavez's Venezuela.

OMMAG

They Call Themselves "Liberals"

But they're really just panderers to sanctimonious well healed hypocrites, business hating fools and socialist economy killers.

In yet another completely clueless move from the BC government ......

British Columbia slapped a moratorium on all uranium exploration !

Apparently for the BC government "Not Liking" a commodity is good enough reason to shut down an entire industry! Apparently all those regulatory control that the province has are of no value either. Else why the need to stop the EXPLORATION business?

Excerpt from the G&M article ....

".....But there remains the little matter of why the B.C. government felt the need to act with such finality, and so precipitously. It's certainly not because the government was convinced of any environmental or health peril posed by uranium mining. “Saskatchewan has proved, and is proving every day, that uranium can be mined responsibly,” Mr. Krueger says.

That might seem like a solid rationale for allowing carefully scrutinized exploration to proceed. Wrong. “We'll leave our uranium in the ground, and that's what the public wants,” says Mr. Krueger, adding that the Liberals have no intention of changing course later, come what may. “That's a forever position, as far as this government is concerned.”

The reason is simple enough. The public doesn't like uranium, therefore the government has banned it. A good deal of the public opposition has come from the direction of the Big White ski resort, which would be within sight of the proposed mine. And Mr. Krueger mentions that B.C. won't need the uranium itself, since it has no need for nuclear power...."

This isn't the first time the BC government has helped to put a nail in the future of resource industries. BC Kills Alcan plans to build Hydro facility!

Apparently optics and aesthetics outrank the importance of having an economic base. All well and good perhaps for well heeled retirees or out of province property owners who treat BC like their personal recreation area. Good too (maybe) for tourism operators who reap the rewards of that crowd. But, BC isn't sustainable as a retirement community or a tourist destination.

The hard reality is that Resource Development and Exploitation IS the business of BC and is what sustains the economy and puts roofs over the heads of the majority of BC residents and food on their plates.

And don't get me started on the forestry industry and the complete failure of the provincial government to deal with the pine bark beetle infestation and the bug wood fallout!

I predict that BC will soon be wondering why their economy is in the tank.

OMMAG