Vaughn Palmer: Horgan said Site C sucked, but it would not have happened without him

The dam project formerly known as Site C has been renamed after the late Premier John Horgan. Photo by Jason Payne /PNG

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VICTORIA — When news spread that the B.C. New Democrats were naming the Site C Dam after the late former Premier John Horgan, it was not long before someone posted online a picture of Horgan posing with a banner saying “Site C Sucks.”

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There was no disguising Horgan’s position on Site C. His successor, Premier David Eby, did not even try.

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“It would be completely disingenuous to stand here and pretend that John supported this project,” said the premier in announcing the news Thursday. “He had misgivings.”

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Nor was there any improving on what Horgan himself said in a posthumous memoir published last year.

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“I had so many positions on Site C over the years that it could be argued that I had experienced the Kama Sutra of hydro positions.”

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Horgan had already been honoured with the naming of the new campus of Royal Roads University, based in the community that ‘John from Langford’ represented in the legislature for 18 years.

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Eby presided this time last year at the naming of the John Horgan campus and expressed regret that its namesake would not be there to greet the first intake of 600 students in September 2025.

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“But of course, if he were here,” added Eby, “he would not have let us name the campus after him. He was a modest guy.”

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The premier made a similar observation to the Horgan family, friends, supporters and onlookers gathered at the steps of the legislature this week.

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“He would not have allowed us to name the dam or anything after him, and he would have used much rougher language than dam(n).”

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All by way of framing the question that Eby asked and answered: “Why would government choose to rename the dam after John?”

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The decision was “complicated and nuanced,” said the premier. But it came down to one straightforward consideration:

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“At one point in this project’s history, the entire trajectory and whether or not it would actually be built, rested on the shoulders of a single person — John Horgan.”

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Horgan did not promise to kill Site C in the election platform that brought him to the threshold of power in 2017, only to conduct an independent review.

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He stuck to that in the power-sharing agreement with Green party leader Andrew Weaver that cleared the way for the NDP to take office.

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The review was handed to the B.C. Utilities Commission, which the Christy Clark B.C. Liberal government bypassed in ordering the start of construction in 2014.

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The commission, given just 12 weeks to complete the work, offered several scenarios, from suspension, to cancellation, to completion. But it took “no position on which of the scenarios has the greatest cost to taxpayers.”

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After the government fired back with some follow-up questions, the commission answered that termination would mean a $4 billion write-off and a 10 per cent hike in Hydro rates.