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CORRESPONDANCE FROM THE PREMIER (NOV. 21/02)
ON BC HYDRO

From: "Office of the Premier PREM:EX"
To: Donna Stewart [mailto:donnastewart@telus.net]
Subject: RE: "betrayal"
Date: Thu, 21 Nov 2002 10:27:47 -0800
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Thank you for your email.

Let me assure you that BC Hydro will remain in public hands. All the Crown Corporation's existing generation, transmission and distribution assets, all the wires and dams, will continue to be owned by British Columbia's citizens. There will be no deregulation and rates will be fairly set by the independent BC Utilities Commission. I appreciate this opportunity to respond to your comments.

Sincerely,

Gordon Campbell Premier

-----Original Message-----
From: Donna Stewart [mailto:donnastewart@telus.net]
Sent: November 19, 2002 9:06 AM
To: Campbell.MLA, Gordon; Jarvis.MLA, Dan; Kathryn Whittred; Sultan.MLA,Ralph; Nettleton.MLA, Paul
Subject: "betrayal"

Premier Gordon Campbell: If you feel "betrayed" by Paul Nettleton, now you know how the people feel who voted Liberal in the last election.

In our view, Paul Nettleton is the only mla with enough courage to do his job: standing up for the citizens in his constituency.

He's the only one we'd vote for in the next election.

Sincerely, D and G. Stewart
2700 Maitland Avenue
North Vancouver, B.C. V7N 2B3

------------------------

REPY TO PREMIER CAMPBELL

By Peter Dimitrov

Dear Premier,

Mrs. Donna Stewart was kind enough to forward her email to your office and the reply by your office to my attention at bcpolitics.ca. Here is my reply on behalf of over 69,000 persons who signed the Save BC Hydro Petition:

Yes, generation, transmission & distribution will all remain under Crown ownership and control...but that is not the main issue. Your division of BC Hydro into two, and MOU with Accenture, and the FERC and NAFTA rules imply that the transmission company cannot offer one set of access rates to BC Hydro generation and another set of access to transmission rates to IPP's. The transmission company has to make $ to maintain and expand an already congested transmission system, one can only imagine the transmission "delivery costs" (just like our gas bills) that will be passed on to the consumers of BC in addition to the commodity costs of electricity. Also, will the transmission company have to pay IPP's to reduce congestion on the lines as happened in the US, what about independent administration of the transmission lines? How will market power manipulation as happened by Enron be minimized?

How will consumers be able to prevent Independent Power Producers, some of which are in the U.S.(IPPs) from holding back their power so as to sell at peak power demands, or congesting the transmission lines and then demanding monies be paid to de-congest the lines? Will the rates of access to the transmission lines be set by the Utilities Commission - I doubt it...because it is far to complicated a matter to do so...they will no doubt only establish "electricity commodity prices" which will, due to cost pressures caused by your changes have to increase upwards towards "market rates".

But what about all the other cost drivers and uncertainties you will have introduced that will impinge on the electricity and transmission & distribution prices for consumer? How will this affect Powerex's ability to export & pricing for exporting electricity? What about debt retirement for the Generation Company, how much will they have to pay to deliver electricity over the Crown transmission & distribution system? You know that FERC and NAFTA will not allow subsidy to BC Hydro generation and not to IPP's. The financing costs of new privately owned generation facilities will exceed the cost of generation that could be financed by the BC Government and therefore IPP's will seek to maximize the rents from their electricity and thus will want to get highest prices for their power and the best deal and times (peak-demand periods) for tranmission line access - all of which are higher costs for the BC consumer.

Will BC'ers see on their monthly invoice, as they see in Ontario, a line item called "Debt Retirement" for the generation system, plus "GST".?, Will they see a cost line item called "Delivery Charges" as we do for gas bills? Will electricity, like natural gas be priced in US dollars and will market pricing tend to be harmonized to US prices, all of which are trending upwards due to insatiable U.S. demand for Canadian produced electricity and gas? Will not your changes move us even closer to a continental energy strategy under FERC control or "sphere of influence" where US energy security becomes a higher priority then our own?

I predict the price, reliability and security of supply of electricity and "transmission costs" and "debt retirement" costs, and other costs to be passed on by the Accenture deal and your splitting up of the existing BC Hydro utility will negatively affect the BC consumer. While technically not selling BC Hydro core assets of generation and transmission you are privatizing the provincial electricity sector and introducing significant upwards cost pressures and unknown risks and uncertainties.certainly not to the benefit of BC residents or the BC economy, but of considerable benefit to Independent Power Producers.

Lastly, why not release the cost benefit analysis and impact analysis of your decision...show us the numbers then we can trust and believe. If this is such a good deal Premier Campbell please release those studies.show us the numbers, let the independent media dissect them, analyze them. Please don't glibly say that you kept your promise to keep BC Hydro core assets under public ownership and control.that is not the main issue here, there are many unanswered questions which your government has failed or refused to thusfar answer.

Finally, please slow down, reflect upon this much more, consider the competitive advantage of a single electrical utility...consider the political costs as well. Does your cost-benefit and impact analysis properly reflect the costs of risk and uncertainty? Once you go down that road there is no going back.

Yours truly,

Peter Dimitrov
Save BC Hydro Petition
www.bcpolitics.ca

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