HomeMy WebLinkAboutBC Hydro CEO defends idea of substations under parks and schools - Metro Ottawa - 01/25/2017 - Metro Ottawa - 01/25/20171/26/2017
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BC Hydro CEO defends idea of substations under parks and schools
IBC Hydro CIEO defends Idea of substations under Iparks and schools
After BC Hydro floated the idea of building needed new Vancouver substations underground, its head
assures parents electromagnetic fields below safe levels.
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Parents need not worry about a proposal BC Hydro floated last week to build two new electrical
substations underneath downtown Vancouver parks and near schools, the Crown corporation's CEO said
Tuesday.
Speaking at a Greater Vancouver Board of Trade luncheon, Jessica McDonald sketched out further details
of her agency's proposal, insisting it was just one "scenario of how this could work" — but that two new
substations must be built in Yaletown and the West End regardless, she said, to meet an expected 75 per
cent increase in electrical demand in the next 30 years.
"If we were to simply do nothing, we would start to see brown -outs in the downtown Vancouver area within
about 10 to 12 years," she said. "This of course is not our plan."
However, she emphasized it was still in very early stages and would go through a consultation process in
the community — and that ultimately it is up to the parks and school boards to decide on, not BC Hydro.
"We have to finish discussing how would the park board and the school board and the city want to deal
with mitigation of the impacts, and what their suggestions are," she said. "These are not our decisions ...
All we can do is put together a pretty compelling scenario and know that it's workable."
One of those attending McDonald's speech, former Vancouver School Board chair Patti Bacchus — who
the province fired last October along with the other elected trustees, replacing them with an appointee —
acknowledged the underground substation idea was "innovative and new."
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1/26/2017 BC Hydro CEO defends idea of substations under parks and schools
But she countered that BC Hydro's timing of the idea was suspect at a time when there is no longer a
democratically elected board to consider the public's interest and vet the idea.
"She tells us it's absolutely safe and fine," she said. "I'm not suggesting it's not safe, but if I was a parent,
I'd want some independent research and expertise to tell me that — who isn't someone who's financially
benefiting (from it).
"With a lack of an elected school board to represent the voices of Vancouver residents, we now have a
government appointee who will be making the decision to give BC Hydro access to this land and displace
an entire school community for several years."
Answering questions from the audience about electromagnetic field (EMF) safety concerns, McDonald said
many people associate electrical infrastructure with danger, but that substations emit EMF levels below
those considered unsafe by Health Canada.
"Intuitively, you look at a substation — particularly with all the security around it — and think it must be
something you should stay away from," she said. "That's what we want people to think.
"The mental association is there must be EMF associated with this, but the levels are miniscule ... The
challenge for us is to ensure we can get that level of transparency and comfort to something that intuitively
suggests the opposite."
In December 2015, an above -ground Richmond substation caught fire, leading to air quality warnings from
authorities. Seven years earlier, a fire started after a Vancouver substation's underground transformer
exploded, causing outages downtown
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