Beyond Boarding Heads To The Peace River To Fight The Site C Dam

If built, the Site C Dam on the Peace River in Northeastern BC will result in the flooding of approximately 5,340 hectares of land and over 100 km of river valley along the Peace River and its tributaries. This great short film from Beyond Boarding documents the crew heading out to get their own boots on the ground to find out more about the project, meet and talk with the locals and to fight the construction of this monstrosity.

Words by Hannah Campbell

"In nature's economy the currency is not money, it is life.” ― Vandana Shiva,

“Premier Christy Clark wants BC citizens to subsidize the oil and gas industry with a $10 Billion taxpayer-funded dam.”(Damien Gillis)

Last spring the Beyond Boarding crew traveled to North Eastern BC and met with people who would be directly effected by Site C Dam. A project that would flood over 16,000 acres of not only wildlife habitats, cultural heritage but some of the best farmland in British Columbia.

“Treaty 8 First Nations in B.C. are vehemently opposed to BC Hydro’s plans to build a third massive dam on the Peace River that would flood more than 5,000 hectares of land, swamp more than 330 recorded archaeological sites and – in direct contravention of the 1899 treaty – destroy land now used for hunting, fishing and collecting medicinal plants,” (Emma Gilchrist).

The Dam is needed to produce some of the colossal amount of energy that would be needed to power LNG (Liquified Natural Gas) plants on the BC coast. The LNG plants would compress natural gas extracted by a process called Hydraulic Fracturing that uses immense amounts of fresh water and energy.

“Last year, at a press conference in Fort St. John, near the location of the proposed dam, Premier Clark spoke to the need for Site C to power LNG. She acknowledged that just one of the 5 or 6 planned LNG terminals on BC’s coast – a proposal by Shell and its Chinese, Korean and Japanese partners – would eat up the entire 1,100 megawatt output of Site C.”(Damien Gillis)

This short speaks to the people who not only live and sustain themselves off of this land, but are essential to British Columbia’s food security.

Beyond Boarding is a collective of snowboarders combining their passion from snowboarding with art, activism and story telling.

Sources:

http://www.albertanativenews.com/site-c-dam-is-final-straw-for-bcs-treaty-8-first-nations/ http://commonsensecanadian.ca/site-c-dam-a-10-billion-taxpayer-subsidy-for-lng-fracking/