Achieving Net Zero may be easier than we thought: Kelowna’s Development Future In Jeopardy Due To Insufficient Electrical Capacity
In what can only be described as a shocking letter, the Urban Development Institute said this week that development in Kelowna may come to a standstill as a result of insufficient electrical infrastructure.
“Kelowna’s real estate development industry is facing significant uncertainty as FortisBC has indicated it cannot guarantee power availability for new projects over the next several years,” the Okanagan chapter of the UDI, which represents the development industry, said in the letter. “In recent weeks, several developers have been informed that power cannot be assured for projects until 2027 to 2029.”
FortisBC serves as the regional electricity provider for the Southern Interior region of British Columbia. In Fall 2024, FortisBC said that it plans to spend $157 million towards electrical infrastructure in the region over the next three years, but that is still pending approval from the British Columbia Utilities Commission (BCUC), the Province’s regulatory agency for utilities, and UDI Okanagan said the investment was “neither sufficient nor timely to accommodate Kelowna’s rapid population growth.”
“Without a reliable electricity supply, development in the region is at risk of stalling, with some projects potentially being abandoned altogether,” they said. “This has the potential to disrupt the City of Kelowna’s ability to meet its provincial housing targets.”
That which cannot go on forever will stop.
Not being able to build anything is a feature to these people, not a bug.
Thanks to the *settled science* of climate change, we are commanded to shut down reliable thermal generation and replace it with unreliable wind / solar. Adding insult to injury we are also commanded to switch to electrical vehicles, thereby adding huge additional load to a crippled electric grid.
Naturally, it is forbidden to question the *settled science*.
See: California. Where construction is utterly unaffordable. Hence … a chronic, permanent housing shortage and ever-inflating housing prices and rents. The ONLY way it stops at this point is when a significant number of residents flee for more affordable pastures.
So yes … it’s not a bug to make housing, and energy unaffordable … it’s a feature.
Jeez, get some of those bird shredders in there fast.
NOW!!
Reducing your carbon footprint to zero is trivially easy. Kill yourself.
Funny how the people who think doing so is worthwhile want you and me to die instead.
Ain’t that the truth, you’re the problem, not me, I’m virtuous cause I know you’re bad.
Elections have consequences.
The NDP also denied a gas pipeline expansion in the same region last year, to Fortis. The consequences will exacerbate the power crisis to come.
This region doesn’t vote NDP by the way.
And the NDP hates Alberta, Firtis is regarded as an Alberta company.
Elections.
“This region doesn’t vote NDP by the way.”
Of course it doesn’t. People who would have to pay the cost of NDP policy on anything never vote NDP.
So build an electrical facility – how hard is this? BC has a ton of fresh water rivers as does Kelowna, with a large lake.
Permits.
Steve
Voters!
I think the permit people ignore the voters.
Where do you live, cause if you have to ask that, it isn’t Canada. Without water at elevation, a river doesn’t mean shit, b.t.w.. If it is at elevation, you need a dam, and an area to flood. If you could get that all permitted, with the necessary delays and cut to the 27 indian bands that claim ownership, and do that in less than 20 years, you are a bureaucratic savant.
What about all the dams on the Peace River and the Columbia River? The electricity misses Kelowna on it’s way to Vancouver.
More please
Faster and harder
Living in a tent is a sure way to reduce your carbon emissions.
Oh, I’m shocked! Actually, NOT AT ALL!!! The people who run everything are politicians and lawyers. Most of them are often not good at math. They are the furthest thing from engineers. They’re incapable of anything beyond First Stage Thinking. That is why such things like this happen.
Good. There would be nothing better for Canadians than for new building to stop completely. All across the country.
There is more than enough existing housing for Canadians. But not enough for Chinese, Pakis, Afghans, Nigerians, etc. that our ultra-corrupt, treasonous, far-left governments are importing daily.
Much of our taxes at every level is being diverted to infrastructure FOR THEM.
One of the lies Keynesians would have us believe is that we have to keep increasing our population to maintain our standard of living and for our economy to grow. We don’t. Period. The reverse is actually true.
Exactly. Canada with the 4th largest economy compared to the US states is 50th in GDP per capita. The ratio of makers to takers in Canada is wrong and gets worse every day.
Exactly.
Population growth is the paramount Ponzi scheme.
It’s precisely stories like this which illustrate how unresponsive and downright brittle the Canadian economy is. I think Trump knows this.
Kelowna doesn’t vote Left, therefore…
But…the lefty voters of Victoria and Vancouver, who will chose the BC government, know better than the Kelownaites (Kelownians?), they will tell you so….
“ a transformer for a substation that once took one year could now be seeing up to three years for delivery. ”
It doesn’t help that such transformers are no longer built in Canada. GE in Peterborough and Oakville, gone. Ferranti-Packard in St Catherine’s, gone. Others elsewhere, gone, gone, gone.
Large transformers come from overseas or the US or Mexico. We’re way down the list of order fulfillment.
Canada has neutered its ability to build or maintain its infrastructure.