{"id":780,"date":"2018-04-07T21:29:27","date_gmt":"2018-04-07T21:29:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nortonspeaks.com\/?p=780"},"modified":"2018-04-07T21:29:27","modified_gmt":"2018-04-07T21:29:27","slug":"bc-government-withheld-info","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/nortonspeaks.com\/index.php\/2018\/04\/07\/bc-government-withheld-info\/","title":{"rendered":"BC Government Withheld Info"},"content":{"rendered":"

BC Government Withheld Information on Dangers of Unregulated Fracking Dams<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Despite risks, managers refused to provide information as election loomed.<\/h3>\n

By\u00a0<\/strong>Ben Parfitt<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0TheTyee.ca\u00a0 \u00a0<\/strong>Ben Parfitt is a resource policy analyst with the BC office of the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives.\u00a0 \u00a0His recent research for the CCPA is published\u00a0here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Despite criticism for failing to warn about risks before 2010 Testalinden dam disaster, the BC government withheld information on risks from unregulated energy industry dams.\u00a0Photo by\u00a0Darren Kirby<\/a>, Creative Commons licensed.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Early last spring, provincial civil servants cut off virtually all communication about what the government\u00a0knew about a sprawling network of potentially dangerous and unregulated dams in northeast B.C. on the pretext they could not comment because of the impending election.\u00a0\u00a0The co-ordinated effort meant there was virtually no comment until months after voting day from frontline agencies on how\u00a092 unlicensed dams<\/a>\u00a0were built on the BC Liberal government\u2019s watch.<\/h4>\n

 <\/p>\n

Details about muzzling government communication on the dams \u2014 which were built to trap freshwater used in natural gas industry fracking operations \u2014 are contained in some of the 8,000 pages of documents released by the BC Oil and Gas Commission in response to Freedom of Information requests by the\u00a0Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives<\/a>, which was the first to report on the dams early last May.<\/h4>\n

 <\/p>\n

The initial CCPA\u00a0report<\/a>, published one week before the election and widely covered by media outlets, exposed how fossil fuel companies had built \u201cdozens\u201d of unlicensed fracking dams.<\/h4>\n

 <\/p>\n

The FOI documents include internal emails between senior OGC staff and the Ministry of Natural Gas Development, in which the two organizations agree to refuse to release information on the dams on the grounds that doing so would violate rules on managing government records during the \u201cinterregnum\u201d (the time between the call of the election and the swearing in of a new government).<\/h4>\n

But this assertion is flatly rejected by an expert on privacy policy.<\/h4>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cGuidelines<\/a>\u00a0on \u2018managing records during an election\u2019 cannot trump the law,\u201d said Colin Bennett, a University of Victoria political scientist. \u201cIf there is a public interest in disclosure, then the election period is irrelevant.\u201d<\/h4>\n

 <\/p>\n

Bennett added that B.C.\u2019s Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act clearly states that government officials should proactively release information that is in the public interest without delay. That did not happen in this case.<\/h4>\n

 <\/p>\n

Not only did it not happen, but the OGC insisted on formal FOI requests being filed to obtain the information. By doing so, the commission \u2014 with the knowledge of the Ministry of Natural Gas Development \u2014 ensured that documents on the troubling dams would not be released until long after the election.<\/h4>\n

 <\/p>\n

The suppressed information included documents about unlicensed dams built by Progress Energy,<\/em> a subsidiary of the giant Malaysian state-owned company Petronas<\/em>. At the time of last spring\u2019s election, Petronas<\/em> was still weighing whether or not to invest in a proposed liquefied natural gas plant at the mouth of the Skeena River near Prince Rupert. The project was enthusiastically backed by then-premier Christy Clark and Rich Coleman, minister of natural gas development. Clark went so far as to\u00a0call<\/a>\u00a0opponents of the project \u201cthe forces of no.\u201d<\/h4>\n

 <\/p>\n

Averting a potential disaster<\/strong><\/h3>\n

 <\/p>\n

Early in the investigation, the CCPA learned that at least one unauthorized Progress Energy<\/em> dam was so poorly built that the OGC had quietly ordered the company in spring 2016 to empty the dam\u2019s reservoir in order to avert a potential disaster. (A gas compressor station was downhill of the dam.) The OGC even posted a very short summary of the order on one of its webpages, a low-key public acknowledgement that a more comprehensive document existed.<\/h4>\n

 <\/p>\n

The CCPA\u2019s request for a copy of the full order was initially denied.<\/h4>\n

 <\/p>\n

An April 18, 2017 email exchange between the OGC\u2019s executive director of corporate affairs, Graham Currie, and the Ministry of Natural Gas Development\u2019s communications director, Paul Woolley, refers to the full order and related documents as materials that both organizations agree not to release or to answer questions about.<\/h4>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cFYI \u2014 spoke with [CCPA policy analyst] Ben Parfitt today and advised him we could not release the order he was asking for and that he should submit an FOI. He said he has to report on this \u2014 and will put a line in to the effect:<\/h4>\n

\u2018I asked to receive a copy of the order and Graham Currie told me, due to the interregnum, it was not available and I should submit an FOI.\u2019<\/h4>\n

 <\/p>\n

I suspect we\u2019ll see his editorial coming in the next day or two, based on this conversation,\u201d Curry wrote in the email.<\/h4>\n

<\/h4>\n

A half hour later, Woolley responded.\u00a0\u00a0\u201cThx. This is [sic] the lines we are working with:<\/h4>\n

 <\/p>\n