Electricity exports good for the province

Editor: There was a time back in the 1980s and early 1990s when B.C. was a solid exporter of electricity. Our dams could generate more than we could use, and exporting our surplus was very profitable for us. It brought big money into the province and helped pay for health care, education and all sorts of other government services we expect to have access to.

However, we haven’t built any dams since the mid-1980s and now we’re importing electricity.  Why have we stopped building dams and profiting from the electricity resources we have, including new sources of electricity like wind energy, tidal power and run-of-the-river hydro?

It makes no sense to me that we are not availing ourselves of these exportable resources.

Health care and education aren’t getting any cheaper, and using our resources to help pay for the government services we want and expect makes complete sense to me. We need to get back to being a solid electricity exporter rather than being the importers we’ve become. It just makes sense.

Sandra Robinson,

Maple Ridge

Langley Times