Promoting healthy watersheds and local benefits from energy production
Our mission
By promoting positive models of energy democracy, ED4BC aims to ensure that local communities benefit from the electricity generated at dams. We also advocate for improved management of dams to mitigate against their harmful impacts.
Community Organizing Brought Lasting Benefits to Columbia Basin Residents
The Columbia Basin Trust was created in 1995 following successful grassroots organizing, in co-operation with First Nations, by those who were impacted by regional dams. Today, the Trust ensures that they receive lasting social, economic, and environmental benefits from dam operations.
In the 2023/2024 fiscal year, these benefits totalled $80.8 million, with key grants and loans including:
$2.3 million to seniors’ centers in Kaslo, Nakusp, Salmo, and Sparwood for backup power systems and emergency preparedness upgrades
$2 million for ecosystem restoration, including a grant to Golden’s Rod and Gun Club to work with the Ktunaxa Nation Council Guardians on elk habitat improvement
$13 million in new business loans, supporting small businesses and food producers
Since 2015, $47.2 million has gone to housing initiatives, enabling 1,109 affordable housing units, including new construction in Kaslo and Revelstoke
Public Engagement Led to BC Hydro Compensation Program
In response to sustained public pressure from First Nations and conservation groups like the BC Wildlife Federation, BC Hydro launched the Fish and Wildlife Compensation Program (FWCP) in 1988 to help address environmental damage caused by its dams.
For the 2024/2025 fiscal year, BC Hydro allocated $8.7 million to the FWCP overall, with $2.4 million going to projects in the Coastal Region. These included:
$173,000 for Campbell River Watershed projects, such as gravel placement to improve fish habitat, estuary restoration, and invasive species control
$400,000 to help protect the Puntledge Forest from logging. This initiative aimed to preserve 100 hectares of ecologically significant land along the Puntledge River.
Groups like the BC Wildlife Federation continue to push for increased FWCP funding and more effective distribution of resources.
Community Voices Make a Difference....
Urgent Action Needed
We will soon know whether Powell River Energy’s application to export all the power produced at local dams for thirty years is automatically approved or whether there is still a chance for public hearings and for the application to be turned down. It is up to the federal energy minister, Tim Hodgson, to decide by Feb. 20 which outcome we will get.
Please take a few minutes to email Minister Hodgson so that this export application can still be rejected. Below is a sample email you can send. You can also go to the Keep Our Power Local website and fill out a form that will automatically send an email to Minister Hodgson on this issue.
Sample email
To: HonTim.Hodgson@nrcan-rncan.gc.ca
Cc: Eamonn.McGuinty@nrcan-rncan.gc.ca
Subject: Powell River Energy Inc’s Export Application
I am very concerned that Powell River Energy Inc.’s application to export all the power it produces to the US for thirty years is against Canada’s interest. As you have stated, Canadian electricity demand is expected to surge so it makes no sense for electricity exports to be locked in so far into the future.
The Canada Energy Regulator has recommended that you order PREI's request to be dealt with as an application for a license rather than a permit. Their recommendation reflects the need for a thorough review process due to the duration, national significance, and public interest in the application.
The leaders of the Tla’amin Nation, the City of Powell River, and the director of the qathet Regional District have written asking you to accept the Regulator’s recommendation.
If you reject the Regulator’s recommendation, the consequences would be serious. The Regulator would have no choice but to quickly grant a permit for the exports. There would be no chance for the application to be rejected or for anyone except PREI to be heard.
If PREI gets its unprecedented application approved under the cursory permitting process, all private power producers in Canada will be encouraged to shift to sending their power to the US under long term contracts regardless of domestic needs. So the impacts will be felt far beyond Powell River.
I urge you to defend Canada’s interests and designate this 30-year export application as a license application so it receives the full review and public input it deserves. This is your decision and yours alone to make.
Sincerely
[your name] [your location]
Some Key Resources
Joint letter from the Mayor of Powell River, the hegus of the Tla’amin Nation, and the Chair of the qathet Regional District to Minister of Energy Tim Hodgson:
Letter from the Canada Energy Regulator to Minister of Energy Tim Hodgson recommending he designate PREI’s application as requiring a license:
https://apps.cer-rec.gc.ca/REGDOCS/File/Download/4639873
Minister Hodgson responding in the House of Commons on Feb. 5, 2026 to a question from MP Aaron Gunn on whether he was going to accept the Canada Energy Regulator’s recommendation:
https://www.facebook.com/reel/1241676751239236
Here’s a simple explanation in a federal court decision of the difference between a permitting and a licensing process in evaluating electricity export applications (the National Energy Board was the precursor to the Canada Energy Regulator but the same rules still apply)
“[9]…Electricity may not be exported without authorization from the National Energy Board [now the Canada Energy Regulator] in the form of a permit or a licence. The more usual and simple procedure for obtaining authorization involves the mandatory issuance of a permit upon application and without a public hearing by the Board. An application must be accompanied by information that the Regulations require be furnished to the Board.
[10] Exceptionally, the Governor in Council [this means the Minister of Energy] may designate an application as one for which a licence must be issued, in which case the process before the Board is more elaborate, involving a public hearing. In such case, the Board has a discretion to issue or not issue the licence.”
PROMOTING COMMUNITY BENEFITS
RESEARCH AND SUBMISSIONS
ADVOCATING FOR BETTER WATERSHED MANAGEMENT
Watersheds impacted
by dams in the qathet region
Powell River Energy's 4 dams have major impacts on local watersheds
Over 7 square miles of Crown land can be flooded by PREI's dams
The dams' negative impacts were once balanced by jobs created at the mill that they powered - now all the electricity is exported.
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Get in Touch with Us
This website was intended as a community resource to make accessible what we've learned about the dams in our region. If you have questions or would like to share what you know, please contact us.
ed4bc@shaw.ca
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