Residents of Graham Island in B.C.’s Haida Gwaii are outraged that BC Hydro planned a 10-hour power outage Saturday, forcing businesses to close and employees to lose a day of work.
Queen Charlotte City mayor Carol Kulesha said she has received several complaints from Graham Island residents and businesses about the power outage.
“Every business from Queen Charlotte, Skidegate and Tlell has their power out from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m.,” she said. “I’m very concerned because residents have no job today. Thousands of people are impacted.”
Kulesha said Saturdays are big business for the remote area of around 4,000 people, especially during tourist season.
“We still have tourists in town and there’s no place to have breakfast, lunch… all those businesses are closed,” she said.
“The credit union is shut today and their ATMs are out, so you can imagine it impacts every part of your life.”
Kulesha is wondering why the outage wasn’t planned for a Sunday when most businesses are closed anyways.
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The full-day outage was planned so BC Hydro crews could conduct tests on the submarine cables that carry power from Moresby Island to Graham Island.
Kulesha said BC Hydro advertised the outage in the local newspaper, stating that the date was chosen to save money on overtime costs.
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Kulesha thinks it was a poor decision to put cost savings over the needs of the community.
“They have to think more about just their bottom line. They need to consider how they serve the communities they’re in.”
Simi Heer, a spokesperson for BC Hydro, said the company usually consults with local communities before picking a date for service and places ads so residents can be aware of outages, however Kulesha said she was not contacted by BC Hydro prior to the incident.
Heer said there are many factors, including community needs and BC Hydro’s own costs, that go into planning a major outage such as this one.
“We are sympathetic because obviously electricity is a huge part of our lives and we do our best to pick a date that works for most and to minimize any impact,” she said.
“We would need to look for efficiencies in every way we can and we need to balance that with the needs of the community. It’s a variety of factors and variables,” she said, adding that the work could potentially avoid an emergency outage in the future.
Graham Island resident and former BC Hydro employee Michael Ferrier said it was a poor management decision and steps need to be taken to ensure it doesn’t happen again.
“It was really wrong to have the outage on a Saturday and it was really wrong to incite incurring less overtime,” he said.
“What about the business and employees of the whole south island?”
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