The West Kootenay EcoSociety’s Lee-Ann Unger leads protesters in a chant outside J.V. Humphries school in Kaslo at a protest of the Glacier/Howser IPP project on June 23.

Aaron Orlando/Arrow Lake News

Kaslo was the scene of a large protest of the proposed Glacier/Howser IPP project on June 23 when about 900 protesters packed the J.V. Humphries high school gymnasium to express their opposition to proponent AXOR’s plans for a major river diversion project.

Although there are many IPPs planned across the West Kootenay and the rest of B.C., the Glacier/Howser project has drawn the most attention and opposition in this region because of the nature of the project, its location and partially because it is at an advanced stage relative to other proposed IPP projects.

Opponents have derided the terminology of the so-called ‘run of river’ project as a euphemism that belies the true nature of some of these industrial scale projects. They point to the the fact that portions of the rivers will be diverted through pipes that will be bored through a mountain, never to return to the rivers. They also note that 92 kilometres of of transmission lines will head north-east, ending up on Invermere’s doorstep.

This new line will cut a new path through the Purcell Mountain range in areas that have been the focus of intense conservation efforts over the past decades and equally intense controversies, such as the 18-year long saga of the proposed Jumbo Glacier Resort, which has met with stiff opposition and has also been a very divisive issue that has polarized many in nearby East Kootenay communities such as Radium, Invermere and Fairmont.

The West Kootenay EcoSociety has led the opposition to the Glacier/Howser project and was instrumental in organizing the protest in Kaslo.

Prior to the Kaslo date, the society had demanded that at least one of the three meetings be held in Nelson, arguing that it was the natural choice as the largest population centre near the proposed independent power project. The other two were held in Meadow Creek (June 24) and Invermere (June 25).

After losing that battle the EcoSociety focused efforts on mobilizing opponents to the project to come to the Kaslo meeting. They rented out school buses and brought people from Nelson to the meeting. They also mounted an advertising campaign in newspapers and on radio across the region.

The festive protest started outside the high school just after 6 p.m. where hundreds of protesters waved signs, sang chants and listened to speeches in what was a festive but pointed rally.

Speakers included Sinixt Nation spokesperson Marilyn James, Southern Interior MP Alex Atamanenko, the Wilderness Committee’s Gwen Barlee, Nelson-Creston MLA Michelle Mungall and West Kootenay EcoSociety spokesperson Lee-Ann Unger.

Marilyn James asked those in attendance to speak for those who can’t speak for themselves. “Those caribou don’t have a voice. Those grizzly bears walking those alpine mountain tops do not have a voice. They can’t come down here and tell you, ‘Enough is enough.’ That is for us. That is our responsibility and we better start accepting that that’s a responsibility,” said James, who received as raucous applause as did all those who spoke.

The protest rally outside ran until about 7:20 p.m., at which point the crowd began to proceed into the gymnasium. There were about 200 people in the hall at that point, and there were some very brief exchanges of words between some apparent supporters of the project right as the protest crowd began to stream in. Other than that, there was almost no expression of support for the project as dozens of opponents of the project made speeches where they expressed their vehement opposition to the proposed project over the next few hours.

B.C. Environmental Assessment Office Project Assessment Director Garry Alexander was initially emceeing the meeting, but as the crowd of protesters surged in, it became apparent that he was losing control as the passionate and noisy crowd flung ridicule and derisive comments at the unfolding presentation.

At one point about 15 minutes after the first protesters filed in, Alexander attempted to show a flow chart showing at which point in the environmental assessment process the proposal was at. At that point, the catcalls from the crowd became too much, and whatever process envisioned for the meeting essentially unravelled.

Prior to that, near the beginning of the meeting, there were some attempts from the environment office representatives to request that the crowd stick to the question and answer format. It soon became plain that the audience was not interested in having the terms of the meeting dictated to them, and that attempts to do so were pointless. Some veterans of environmental campaigns and those with apparent intricate knowledge of B.C.’s hydropower infrastructure came with well rehearsed questions designed to fit within the framework of the meeting. However, the majority of the speakers were there to state plainly, and often very enthusiastically, their very vehement and total opposition to the plan. These declarations were punctuated with hoots and applause throughout the meeting.

As the meeting deteriorated even further, Kaslo resident and RDCK Area D director Andy Shadrack soon stepped into the role as the de facto moderator for the meeting as angry shouting and catcalls from the protesters threatened to completely derail the meeting.

Shadrack, who is well known in Kaslo as a politician and Green Party member, said very little over the course of the meeting, taking a laissez-faire approach as he let the speakers who had formed an orderly line take their time to express their views.

The bulk of the next two hours was filled with speaker after speaker who had waited in line to get their opportunity speak in opposition to the project.

Of note was the fact that perhaps more than half of the speeches, verbal protests and catcalls from the protesters were aimed squarely at the table where the federal and provincial environment representatives sat, as opposed to the representatives from proponent AXOR, who sat at a separate table at the front of the room.

Several speakers made the point that the meeting amounted to an environmental ‘approval’ process rather than an application process.

Valhalla Wilderness Society spokesperson Anne Sherrod encapsulated what many environmentalists who had been through these types of campaigns in the region before alluded to at the meeting. She said for their part the VWS was done pursuing a science-based approach, citing its futility.

She mentioned the Jumbo controversy. “Many of the people in this room were there,” she said, saying they participated and protested Jumbo. “They worked through science, they made elaborate submissions. There was endless scientific evidence and data.” Nevertheless, she said the Environmental Assessment Office found no fault with the project. “That is when all the people in this room and in our communities found out that the EA process is part of the crime,” she said. “After all the scientific reports we put in on Jumbo, you’re not getting another report from Valhalla. You’re not going to get another scientific analysis. We just say no.”

Another speaker expressed his doubt in the integrity of the federal environmental process, noting that there were applications pending for further Alberta tar sands projects, asking that if the federal government was still considering those applications, what hope existed that they would move to halt a hydropower project in B.C.

Both AXOR spokesperson Simon Goudreau and B.C. Environmental Assessment Office Project Assessment Director Garry Alexander responded to questions over the course of the evening, often to particular aspects of the project. The bulk of the meeting, however, was filled with speakers simply expressing their opposition.

Nelson-Creston MLA Michelle Mungal (NDP) spoke near the end of the meeting. She said her original intention was to watch and listen, but later decided to speak. “My plea to you is to not dismiss us,” she asked of Goudreau and Alexander. “What you see here tonight is incredible passion and fervor for the land that we live on.” She said the residents were neither uneducated nor to be dismissed as a bunch of hippies. “They understand it. They don’t like it. They don’t want it,” she said, adding many had taken considerable pains to educate themselves on the process.

Mungal said the passion that residents of the West Kootenay have for the land came naturally, comparing it to the investment and time the proponents had put into their plans for the Glacier/Howser project so far. “We are doubly, if not triply more invested in this land,” she said. “And that is why we are so passionate here tonight, and that is why we’ve come out in big numbers that we do, and that’s why we are going to fight ... because we love it.”

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Comprehensive information on the Glacier/Howser project is available on the B.C. Environmental Assessment Office website at http://www.eao.gov.bc.ca/

B.C. Environmental Assessment Office Project Assessment Director Garry Alexander noted at the meeting that written comments bear substantial weight in the process. The following information on Glacier/Howser is from the B.C. Environmental Assessment website:

The comment period will begin on June 12, 2009, and end at midnight on July 27, 2009. All comments received during this comment period will be considered. The intention of seeking public comments is to ensure that all potential effects – environmental, economic, social, heritage and health – that might result from the proposed Project are identified for consideration as part of the assessment process. Please submit your comments at the Open House or send your comments to:

Garry Alexander, Project Assessment Director

Environmental Assessment Office

PO Box 9426 Stn Prov Govt

Victoria, BC V8W 9V1

Fax 250-356-6448

Comments by e-mail may be directed to Glacier.Howser@gov.bc.ca

An electronic copy of the Application and information regarding the environmental assessment process are available at www.eao.gov.bc.ca. Copies of the Application are also available for viewing at the Kaslo, Nelson, Castlegar, Invermere and Cranbrook public libraries, and the Meadow Creek and Argenta community halls.