It is big. Really big. If you drive up toward Fort St. John and look across the Peace River valley, the scale of Site C British Columbia hits you in a way that news reports just can’t capture. We are talking about a massive wall of earth and concrete that has been decades in the making. It’s a project that has survived three different premiers, multiple lawsuits, and a price tag that ballooned so high it made people's eyes water.
Honestly, it’s a bit of a miracle it even got finished.
Depending on who you ask, Site C is either a visionary piece of clean-energy infrastructure or a billion-dollar mistake that ignored Indigenous rights and local farmers. There isn't much middle ground here. But now that the reservoir is filling and the turbines are getting ready to spin, the conversation is shifting from "should we build it" to "how are we going to live with it."
The Numbers That Keep People Up at Night
Let's talk money. When the project was first announced by the BC Liberals years ago, the estimate was around $6.6 billion. That sounds like a lot, right? Well, by 2021, that figure had skyrocketed to $16 billion. You don't just find an extra $10 billion under the couch cushions. This massive jump happened because the geology of the Peace River valley is, frankly, a nightmare for engineers.
💡 You might also like: Illinois Net Salary Calculator: What Most People Get Wrong
The shale bedrock is slippery. It moves.
Engineers ran into "geotechnical challenges"—which is just fancy talk for the ground not staying where it’s supposed to stay. They had to install massive foundation enhancements to make sure the dam wouldn't literally slide away. It’s the kind of stuff that keeps project managers awake at 3:00 AM.
BC Hydro is the crown corporation behind this, and they’ve had to defend these costs to a skeptical public for over a decade. The logic is pretty simple on their end: once the dam is built, it provides "baseload" power. This is the stuff that stays on when the sun isn't shining for solar panels or the wind isn't blowing for turbines. It’s meant to power about 450,000 homes a year for the next century.
🔗 Read more: New York Criminal History Search: What Most People Get Wrong
Why This Specific Spot?
Site C isn't a random name. It’s literally the third site (Site A and Site B are already dammed) on the Peace River. The location was identified back in the 1950s. The idea was to use the "spent" water from the W.A.C. Bennett and Peace Canyon dams to generate even more electricity.
It’s efficient.
But it’s also heartbreaking for the people who lived in the valley. We are talking about thousands of hectares of prime agricultural land and traditional territories of the Dane-zaa people. This isn't just dirt; it’s history.
The Human and Environmental Toll
- Indigenous Rights: The West Moberly and Prophet River First Nations fought this in court for years. They argued that flooding the valley would destroy their ability to hunt and fish, effectively ending their way of life as protected by Treaty 8. While some nations eventually reached settlements, the scars in the community remain deep.
- The "Breadbasket" Debate: Local farmers, like the Boone family who famously fought the project, pointed out that the Peace River valley has a unique microclimate. It can grow crops that don't usually survive that far north. Flooding it means losing that food security forever.
- Wildlife Impact: It's not just humans. The valley is a migration corridor. When you put a giant lake in the middle of a river system, you change everything for the fish, the moose, and the birds.
The "Clean Energy" Paradox
British Columbia wants to be a leader in the green transition. To do that, you need electricity. Lots of it.
If we want everyone to drive EVs and every house to use heat pumps, we need a massive increase in the grid's capacity. Site C provides that. Because it’s hydroelectric, it has a much lower carbon footprint than natural gas plants.
But is it "green" if you destroy a river ecosystem to get it? That’s the question that has haunted the project. Many critics argued that BC should have invested in smaller-scale wind and solar projects instead. However, energy experts like those at the University of Victoria’s 2060 Project have pointed out that wind and solar need a "battery" to be reliable. Site C is essentially that battery—a giant reservoir of potential energy that can be tapped at any second.
What Happens Now?
As of 2025 and moving into 2026, the reservoir is filling up. This is a slow process. You don't just flip a switch and create a lake. It takes months of careful monitoring to ensure the banks don't collapse and the pressure doesn't cause unexpected seismic activity.
The first unit of the generating station is expected to come online shortly. When the project is fully operational, it will add about 8% to BC's total energy capacity. That’s a massive bump.
It’s also important to note that the BC government, currently under the NDP, inherited this project. They had a chance to kill it in 2017 but decided that the $4 billion already spent was too much to walk away from. It was a "sunk cost" dilemma of epic proportions. Premier David Eby has since had to manage the fallout of the rising costs while trying to keep hydro rates from doubling for the average citizen.
Actionable Insights for BC Residents
If you live in British Columbia or are looking at the energy sector here, there are a few things you should be doing right now to prepare for the "Site C Era."
- Watch Your Hydro Bill: While Site C is supposed to keep rates stable in the long run, the massive debt from construction has to be paid back. Keep an eye on BC Utilities Commission (BCUC) hearings. They are the ones who decide how much of that $16 billion shows up on your monthly statement.
- Look into BC Hydro Rebates: The province is pushing hard for electrification. Because they will soon have all this new power from Site C, they want people to use it. There are often thousands of dollars available for switching to heat pumps or installing EV chargers. Check the BC Hydro CleanBC portal regularly.
- Support Local Food Systems: Since the valley's agricultural output is being reduced, supporting local farmers in other parts of the Peace Region and the Okanagan is more important than ever for provincial food security.
- Understand the Cumulative Impact: Site C doesn't exist in a vacuum. It’s part of a larger industrial landscape in the North that includes LNG and fracking. If you’re an investor or just a concerned citizen, look at how these projects interconnect.
The story of Site C British Columbia is a story of trade-offs. We traded a valley for a battery. We traded billions of dollars today for energy security for the next hundred years. Whether that was a good deal is something historians—and our monthly power bills—will decide over the coming decades.
Practical Next Steps
- Visit the Site C Public Information Centre: If you're near Fort St. John, they have an overlook and exhibits that explain the engineering behind the earth-fill dam.
- Monitor Water Levels: If you are a recreational user of the Peace River, check the BC Hydro reservoir filling updates before heading out, as water patterns are changing rapidly.
- Review the Truth and Reconciliation Reports: To understand the Indigenous perspective on Site C, read the specific findings related to land use and treaty rights to get a full picture of the project's impact beyond the balance sheet.