"I did not place a high priority on this incident . . . because power goes out periodically for various different reasons, usually during winter storms, and people have tended to muddle through and do the best they can until power comes on."
Rod Tulett, Metro Vancouver security and emergency planning co-ordinator, CKNW, July 5
WHAT constitutes an emergency in Metro Vancouver?
Emergency it was not, apparently, when the collapse of two 60-year-old high-voltage transmission towers dragged BC Hydro lines into Fraser River shipping lanes.
Nor was it a Metro emergency when, for 14 hours, those same downed power lines closed the Port Mann Bridge, Highway 1 and other major routes in the region.
Luckily, with the help of frequent updates from Hydro communications and the media, residents and businesses affected by the event managed to "muddle through" quite nicely. The situation might have been very different had the incident happened during a normal rush hour, before school and family vacations reduced traffic flow.
The July 4 event raises fundamental questions about the status of BC Hydro - questions I put to B.C. Auditor-General John Doyle early the next day.
The letter follows with minor edits for clarification:
"My letter is addressed to you because it appears you are the only person in a position of authority who has the staff, the resources and the will to protect the interests of the people of this province.
"This morning I awoke to the news that a BC Hydro transmission tower had collapsed. High-voltage lines lying across the roadway have resulted in closure of the eastbound and westbound lanes of Highway 1. Morning rushhour traffic is rerouted away from the Port Mann crossing, much of it across the Pattullo Bridge, itself an aging structure prone to serious accidents.
"On a normal weekday, the Port Mann Bridge carries about 140,000 vehicles a day.
"In a normal spring, today's high-water runoff would have occurred several weeks before summer holidays reduced traffic volume. What would have been the risk to life and limb, had the tower failure occurred during a normal rush hour?
"A Hydro spokesman interviewed by Global TV-BC stated that towers in the area were "being monitored for erosion" due to high-water levels in the Fraser River.
"I can only wonder at the quality and persistence of that monitoring - especially when I hear that repair of a nearby tower was carried out in March.
"For years now I have become increasingly concerned that the operation of BC Hydro is being compromised by provincial government interference in its affairs.
"The corporation cannot provide the safe, quality services we have enjoyed for decades, if the province continues to make that financially impossible by forcing the company to buy power from independent power producers at rates far in excess of the cost of in-house power production.
"It is way past time for British Columbians to be given the straight goods about the financial viability of their public asset. I believe you are the only person in a position to dig for and provide us with answers as to the status of the BC Hydro operation and accounts - especially with respect to the deferred liabilities you have 'fingered' in the past.
"Lastly, and again with respect to its effect on financials - we are facing an imminent roll-out of Hydro's multimillion-dollar Smart Meter program.
"If the province has, indeed, been manipulating the corporation into unsustainability as a publicly owned entity, are citizens being set up to pay for Smart Meter hard costs, prior to transfer of the asset into private hands?
"I understand the protocol you must follow - namely that you conduct audits at the request of members of the legislative assembly, and that your reports must be made to that assembly. My plea is that you find a way to facilitate such a request on an emergency
basis, and to conduct and report on the audit before it is too late to turn back the BC Hydro clock. . . ."
Rod Tulett's off-hand answers to the courteous questions Bill Good posed on listeners' behalf were, at best, flip and disinterested.
Does this unheard of infrastructure failure, together with the still-delayed release of Hydro's annual report, indicate that the financials are so shaky that capital renewal and maintenance procedures are in crisis?
Does the corporation still employ the deceptive practice of recording receivables in the regulatory assets accounts redflagged in a previous report by the auditor general?
If I am right, and we ever experience the major earthquake Tulett reminded us is in our future, we would be wise to realize that the "resilient community" envisioned by District of North Vancouver Mayor Richard Walton is yet to be embraced by our regional and provincial governments.
