A new, large-scale industrial development like the Site C dam only stands to exacerbate the impacts of decades of resource development in British Columbia’s Peace Region, a leading environmental group says.
On Wednesday, Dr. Faisal Moola of the David Suzuki Foundation appeared at public hearings on BC Hydro’s proposal, painting a grim picture of a section of the province already scarred by thousands of kilometres of pipelines, transmission lines and roads, and pimpled by thousands of oil and gas sites and mining developments.
“Our report shows much of the mature forests, rivers, wetlands and other elements of natural capital in the Peace Region have already been severely impacted to date by human land use within northeastern B.C.,” said Moola, an adjunct professor of forestry and environmental studies at the University of Toronto and York University, respectively.
Moola appeared before the independent, three-member panel analyzing Hydro's proposal to summarize the key findings of a Global Forest Watch Canada report commissioned by the Suzuki Foundation.
The report studied land use changes in the Peace Region over the last 40 years, and the pressures industrial development as placed on the ecology and environment of the Peace River Valley, much of which has been lost due to the cumulative impacts of natural resource development in the region, as well as two existing dams on the river.
The report estimates that, in the region, there are 45,000 kilometres of roads, 29,000 kilometres of pipelines and 1,160 kilometres of transmission lines, along with 16,000-plus oil and gas well sites and another 8,500 oil and gas facilities.
“Site C would be built in a region of Canada exposed to unprecedented intensity of human land use. The cumulative effects of land use are the primary driver of loss of natural capital and other areas of nature,” Moola told the panel.
Moola said “natural capital” provides important ecological benefits to local communities, from climate regulation, flood protection, water regulation and pollination, among others.
Perhaps most important, Moola said Site C would be built in a critical and irreplaceable “pinch point” of the Yellowstone-to-Yukon corridor, a “continental-scale” conservation priority serving as a migration path for many species of wildlife, including wolves, grizzlies and woodland caribou.
Moola noted the woodland caribou in the Peace is already “spiraling” toward extinction, and that only 4% of the region is protected through parks and protected areas.
The pace of development in the region didn’t happen by accident, Moola noted, saying laws governing land, resource and water management are “hardwired to fail communities and the local environment.”
While B.C. has a myriad of laws and regulations governing its natural resources, both the province and Canada lack a legal framework to properly manage the cumulative impacts of multiple resource industries operating in the same area, Moola said.
He noted the Peace Region is eyed for even more natural gas development to drive the province’s economic agenda.
“For this reason, the Foundation believes that the remaining ecological and farmland resources in the Peace River valley must be protected, and the Site C project should be rejected,” said Moola.
