BE CAREFUL COMPARING MUSKRAT WITH TROUBLED HYDRO PROJECTS ELSEWHERE

Site C Hydro Project, B.C.

Hydro projects underway in British Columbia and Manitoba are making waves among observers, all drawing parallels with the Muskrat Falls project. While there are many similarities, the public should be careful in concluding that Muskrat is entirely their mirror image.

Each has origins inextricably tied to gung-ho engineers, compliant bureaucrats, and politicians unwilling to subject self-serving assumptions and overbearing risk to professional and objective review. This is bad enough, except Muskrat will be forever dogged by the deceit that underscored project sanction.

We’ll come back to that point, but others are also instructive.