the broken typewriter

The Peace River Regional District board of directors is up in arms over the revelation that BC Hydro contractors are looking into disposing of the 1,700-bed Site C work camp into the region’s landfills.

“I’ve been involved with this from day one, and never once have they ever, ever said that this would be coming to our landfill, that it would be demolished,” Area C Director Brad Sperling said during the March 20 regular board meeting.

Now, the board is demanding answers from BC Hydro.

Back when the Community Measures Agreement was negotiated between the regional district and BC Hydro, Sperling said that the number one thing they asked for was that the regional district have first right of refusal to any part of that camp, when construction was complete.

With four of the six generating units now online and producing electricity, that time has arrived.

“This is just totally wrong. To me, it goes against our CMA. It also goes against the part of the CMA that addresses solid waste. This could cost us millions and millions of dollars,” said Sperling.

The inquiry from the BC Hydro subcontractor responsible for planning the demolition of the Site C work camp about the sorting requirements and capacity at the North Peace Landfill, located on the 269 Road just outside Fort St. John, near the Site C lookout, caught all the directors off-guard.

The 1,700-bed camp is made up of 21 three-story modular dorm units, 39 three-story corridors, 131 kitchen, dining and recreation units as well as offices, a fitness building, gymnasium and movie theatre, totalling 665,443 square feet of buildings.

If that much material goes into our landfill, says Sperling, that’s the end of the landfill.

“Who’s going to pay the $10 to $20 million for us to develop a new landfill?”

Directors discussed how they had reached out to BC Hydro about acquiring parts of the work camp to use for various projects such as North Wind Wellness Centre in Pouce Coupe, or a Ronald McDonald House across from the Fort St. John Hospital.

According to the directors, despite the request for right of first refusal, local parties were only contacted after BC Hydro and ATCO which owns and put up the buildings in the work camp couldn’t find any other buyers.

Area B Director Reid Graham said, “I find it atrocious that they want to demolish all these buildings. I find it very hard to believe that there’s nobody that wants to take any of this.”

Fort St. John Director Tony Zabinsky said that he spoke with BC Hydro president and CEO Chris O’Reily in January at the BC Natural Resources Forum, who mentioned that the buildings were coming available soon.

“I asked for it; it came before our council, I looked at some of the ATCO trailers to be donated to us so we could build a Ronald McDonald House across from the hospital,” Zabinsky said.

“We had to give them an answer by the middle of April whether we wanted it and had to move it by that time already. So, the timelines were inexcusable that we could even attain this.”

Lilia Hansen, Fort St. John Mayor and Director said that if they’d been given more time to prepare, the city may have been able to take some of the buildings to use for a Ronald McDonald House or to help local non-profits.

“I just feel that opportunity has been taken away from us, because it was a last-minute offer to say, “well we didn’t have anyone to buy it, so if you want it, you can now have it”, everyone knows that we don’t work that fast. We would have to have our water and infrastructure, and stuff put in,” Hansen said.

None of the directors want to see these buildings end up in the regions’ landfills.

“They should have told us years ago that this was going to happen, we could have made ideas or got ahead with it. They wanted to sell this,” Zabinsky said.

The board voted unanimously:

RECOMMEND that the regional board authorize a letter to written to ATCO Industries and BC Hydro requesting that BC Hydro work with ATCO, their subcontractor and Site C camp provider to repurpose or find other opportunities for the 1,700-bed camp structures.

AND FURTHER that the Peace River Regional District additionally request not to receive any of the structures at any of the regional landfills in sorted or in demolished form.

Tumbler Ridge Mayor and Director Darryl Krakowka added another recommendation that the board ask BC Hydro and ATCO to appear before the board to discuss the situation. He feels that they need to hear it directly from the elected officials.

As Pouce Coupe Director and Mayor Danielle Veach said, “Nobody knows this region better than the people sitting in this room. We often know different projects that are coming through, or different things that are being developed.”

That recommendation was also carried unanimously.

The Broken Typewriter reached out to ATCO Structures for regarding the concerns surrounding the disposal of the Site C work camp. ATCO provided this statement:

ATCO Structures was contracted by BC Hydro in 2015 to design, build and operate the Site C Workforce Accommodation facility. Our obligation also extends to managing the decommissioning of the facility once it is no longer required to support the construction activities of the dam. 

ATCO has been actively engaged in the solicitation of the facility to prospective buyers throughout Canada, the United States and Mexico for the last 24 months and continues to do so. 

Although there continues to be great interest and curiosity, no parties have committed to acquire any aspect of the facility. We encourage interested parties to contact us or BC Hydro so we can discuss their particular needs and explore if any aspect of the facility is a good fit for them.