Petition to the Government of Canada
We, the undersigned citizens and residents of Canada, draw the attention of the government to the following:
- That Powell River Energy Inc. (PREI), whose dams once powered local industry, has applied for a thirty-year electricity export licence to send power to the United States of America;
- That approval of this licence would set a troubling precedent, as such a long-term licence has never been granted to a private corporation intending to sell its power to foreign electrical grids;
- That locking in exports until 2055 would prevent Canadians from making future use of these resources to meet domestic energy demand or support local economic development, having a particularly negative impact on rural communities like Powell River that are struggling to recover from the loss of industry;
- That the proposed licence deprives Canadians of the benefits garnered from the sale of exported electricity generated from Canadian natural resources, especially given that PREI’s parent company, Brookfield Renewable Partners, is a Bermuda-based limited partnership.
Therefore, we, the undersigned, call upon the Government of Canada to: reject Powell River Energy Inc.’s application for a thirty-year export licence, as it is not in the national interest, sets a troubling precedent, undermines economic development particularly in rural and Indigenous communities, and fails to ensure Canadian resources benefit Canadian communities and taxpayers.
