FortisBC's proposed plan to pro-actively cut power when facing extreme heat and wind that might spark a wildfire was met with an equally fiery backlash from Okanagan-Similkameen elected officials.
"We're talking about having to evacuate hundreds if not thousands of people because you guys are looking at turning off the power because it's hot out," said Spencer Coyne, Princeton Mayor and Regional District of Okanagan Similkameen Director. "When it's 40+ degrees out, people are going to start dying because they don't have air conditioning."
Coyne was just one of several directors who tore into FortisBC's staff at a presentation over their planned proactive power shutoffs for feeder lines that largely service rural areas like Greenwood or the Similkameen Valley. The proposal would not affect the main transmission lines.
Among the issues was the lack of any consultation with the impacted communities and the local governments prior to FortisBC making the announcement of their plan at the end of April.
The board voted to, alongside the Town of Princeton, file a formal complaint with the Utilities Commission alleging that the proposed shutoffs would violate the Utilities Commission Act (UCA) and also to send formal letters to FortisBC and multiple provincial ministers.
The complaint is on three sections of the UCA, effectively calling for a hearing to determine whether the service of the utility is unreasonable, unsafe, inadequate or unreasonably discriminatory, as well as claiming that FortisBC is failing to uphold sections requiring it to provide power and service.
Area Director Adrienne Fedrigo, who represents Naramata, was among those who called out the measure as a way to avoid putting more expenses into clearing all of the smaller lines.
"Fortis has come in and decimated the trees within our internal communities, it's awful the way that those trees have been decimated and that is so we don't start an electrical fire with the trees on the line, I totally appreciate that," said Fedrigo. "There are milling companies who would love to get trees out from under your lines. If we can work with them to mitigate some of that by logging around your lines way out in Timbuktu, then I think that would also help with this."
FortisBC project manager Rob Maschek stated the company had increased vegetation management in recent years, including aiming to have all danger trees in the affected areas removed by June, but that only applied to trees they could identify on Crown land and not any on private property.
Other directors, particularly those from the Similkameen, blasted the proposal due to the fact it would also cut power needed for the water systems in the area.
"What happened in the California fire last year when all of a sudden the water was shut off by the power company following that process, that caused a huge issue that endangered the lives of many firefighters, and lost further lands," said Rural Keremeos Director Tim Roberts. "I don't know if that's really a good excuse to use that reason down there, but we have to build policies and procedures that meet our communities and their reality."
Maschek stated that the criteria for keeping power on, and for restoring it, included communicating with emergency operation centres dealing with wildfires.
On top of the direct impact a shutdown would have on people's lives and wildfire efforts, the potential impact on local businesses was also raised by the directors, who pointed out that an up-to-72-hour-long shutdown, as FortisBC is proposing, could prove devastating.
"I have had numerous people phone me that are looking at 10,000 to $12,000 for a Generac [standby generator]," said Rural Princeton Director Bob Coyne. "I'll use one as an example, it's a pet food place, she has thousands of dollars worth of frozen pet food in a storage unit, if the power goes out there goes her income."
The general consensus from directors was the expression of feelings that FortisBC was making the decision more out of a desire to prevent it from being fined or sued for liability than wanting to prevent wildfires.
Spencer Coyne also raised the example of how the valley has become a major lane of transportation when there are highway shutdowns, as was the case in 2021, which could see tens of thousands of people trying to get through an area without power.
"We had traffic backed up all the way to Allison Lake from town," said Coyne. "You guys just need to see the big picture here."
Maschek attempted to offer a concession and pointed to the multiple factors being considered, but it did not appear to land well.
"There's no absolutes with respect to shutting off of the power if we're looking at the broader picture and recognizing that taking the power system down is going to create a greater hazard to the public under certain circumstances than leaving it on," said Maschek, that would be one of those risk management and waiting decisions that will be undertaken by the senior leadership in our organization based on the information and recommendations that we're passing on to them.
"Where's where's our say in that?" Coyne fired back. "Where do we come into that, that's a corporate decision made by your people, not made by the Emergency Operation Centre (EOD) at the regional district level. The EOC, the village, the [First Nations] bands; we're not part of that conversation."
FortisBC has announced it will be providing information sessions in various communities over the next couple of weeks, including Greenwood on May 14, Keremeos on May 15 from 4鈥�7 p.m. at Victory Hall, and virtually on May 22 starting at 5 p.m. through fortisbc.com/wildfire.
An additional date was pushed for in Princeton by Boundary-Similkameen MLA Donegal Wilson, although a specific date has not yet been confirmed.
"You should be ready for your meeting in Keremeos because social media is buzzing," Roberts told the Fortis staff.
