Who should benefit from qathet’s resources?

WHOOSH: Above, water from the Powell River powers the Brookfield dam (photo by Ryk Tataryn). Negotiating all the pieces associated with the end of the mill will – at least in part – be in the hands of the new Mayor and Council.

BY ROBERT A. HACKETT

Bold BC politico Bob Williams has been hanging around qathet off and on since 1955. With a new book out, the planner, former MLA and consultant is speaking out about taking back our resources for the public good.

“People in the [qathet] region have to get off their butts!”

That’s bold advice from former superstar cabinet minister Bob Williams. Williams says we need to do more to ensure that the community benefits from our shared resources.

Given his East Vancouver roots, his extensive administrative and political experience in Victoria, and the province-wide impact of the various reforms he championed over decades, Williams has surprisingly strong ties to Powell River.

Until recently, he was a seasonal resident; his daughter still lives here; and –get this – as a young planning student at UBC, Williams masterminded the renaming of our city’s streets following the 1955 municipal amalgamations.

Since then, urban and regional planning with the public interest and the bigger picture in mind has anchored Williams’s remarkable career – from his central role in Dave Barrett’s NDP government in the 1970s, to his building of ICBC, VanCity, and much else. At age 89, Williams recently published his political memoir – Using Power Well – that is more than an engaging read. It champions community benefits from economic development and shows how this can be achieved.

Using Power Well: Bob Williams and the Making of British Columbia tells his story – including his many impacts on BC including Whistler, Robson Square, the Agricultural Land Reserve, and much more. Harbour Publishing, 2022.

In a wide-ranging telephone interview, Williams’ passion is still evident. His greatest indignation was directed at what is happening to the now-closed paper mill and the energy that once powered it.

In his book, Williams explains the concept of economic rent, derived from American economist, Henry George.

“The rental value of land and resources was essentially the common property of all and should be shared by all,” he writes. “George favoured the taxing of that rent for public services and meeting the cost of government.” That would shift taxes away from individuals and small businesses.

Williams commented on the local situation where a subsidiary of Brookfield Renewable Partners L.P. is applying for a ten-year export permit for all of the hydroelectricity generated by local dams. Hydro power was the reason a pulp and paper mill was originally located here and later expanded to become the largest in North America.

Water licenses granted by the government were essential to the mill’s development, but destroyed the rich salmon habitat on which Tla’amin depended. Now, though, Brookfield wants to use the vast amounts of water within its licences exclusively for hydro exports.

“Why should Brookfield have these rights in Powell River?” Williams asked. “People in Powell River should be the first to know how it happened, but they don’t. We are an immensely rich society in BC, but we’re lazy about what should be ours.”

But where should we start?

“Determine whether Brookfield actually has the right to export to the US,” Williams advises. “It means do the homework. You need lawyers, economists.”

As a model for qathet, Williams recommends the Columbia Basin Trust that he helped to set up in 1995. In his book, Williams argues that the Trust avoided repeating “the travesty” of an earlier government’s giveaway of Kootenay River dam sites to Cominco.

Instead, it harnesses the Columbia River’s “great potential” for “the benefit of the people of the Kootenay region…in economic, social, educational and cultural ways.”

In 2021, millions from the Trust paid for new affordable housing, childcare spaces, environmental protection, access to locally-grown food, and partnerships with First Nations. Overall, it’s meant decentralization, transferring power away from Victoria to one of BC’s major regions.

That model could be used here, Williams says, but the region should include Vancouver Island, and apply to both forestry and water. The residual rights that Brookfield claims should not exist. “It may require some legislative change,” he says, “to fix rights to the rent for all these assets.”

Fortunately, we have made a start. Williams praises our municipal tree farm as “wonderful.” It’s owned by an independent non-profit agency – Community Forest – that gives the economic rent away annually ($2.3 million this year) to the community.

What are the obstacles to Williams’ approach to economic democracy? Throughout the book, he criticized a hide-bound government bureaucracy.

On the phone, he emphasizes freeing the political imagination, especially rejecting the idea that we must rely on private corporations to create jobs.

“We absolutely do not,” he says, citing the massive redevelopment of downtown Surrey. “That’s an example of what we could do with Crown corporations.”

He is confident that qathet has the creativity to succeed. He sees “a feast of opportunities,” from training pilots at Texada to expanding forest foraging businesses.

Our conversation briefly covered other issues as well. Climate change? Carry on the BC government’s reasonable progress, but prepare for an influx of climate refugees. Reconciliation? Continue the significant progress already made locally.

But for Williams, community benefits from our shared resources is clearly a top-of-mind issue. As the civic election approaches, perhaps it should be one of ours, too.