Williams Lake Council Organizing Delegation to BC Legislature on Atlantic Power Corporation

Courtesy of the City of Williams Lake:

The City of Williams Lake is organizing a delegation of Council members, staff, First Nations leaders, community business leaders and union representatives to travel to Victoria for the first in-session day of the Legislature on February 19, 2025.

“We only have weeks to find a path forward for Atlantic Power Corporation to reach an agreement with the Province and BC Hydro to continue operations,” Williams Lake Mayor Surinderpal Rathor said. “This is a very important independent power producer in our community that contributes to the overall functionality of the electric supply grid in our province.  We have been working with the Province for an entire year to address this problem, and now it is mere weeks before the plant is forced to shut down permanently.”  

Atlantic Power Corporation’s Williams Lake plant provides close to 30 full-time direct jobs, as well as functions as an economic driver for many contract businesses that are suppliers to the company, including local First Nations.

On June 17, 2024, BC Premier David Eby appeared virtually during the City’s Regular Council Meeting and directed a cross-ministry task force to explore solutions to the fibre supply problem that significantly reduces the power output from the plant, at times resulting in a complete shutdown of the facility. As a result of reduced production, the plant has seen revenues decline and has been operating at a loss for the last several years.   

“Everyone came together and worked hard over the summer months, but since our last meeting with the Premier in his office in September there has been very little movement on finding a workable solution,” Rathor said. “It is inconceivable that the government of this Province is announcing fast tracking new resource projects when there is a viable, operating facility in the Interior of B.C. with a simple and straightforward solution of BC Hydro paying them a few more cents per kilowatt hour produced to keep them in the black.”

In 2024, BC Hydro imported 13,600 gigawatt hours of electricity, at a cost of nearly $1.4 billion.

Council has cancelled its regular Committee of Whole Council meeting on February 11 and has communicated to the Premier and Ministers that it is also available to meet at that time to arrive at a concrete plan to keep the plant open. 

“We appreciate that the provincial government is under tremendous pressure right now with the threat of tariffs from the U.S.,” Rathor said. “It makes sense to save a fully operational source of renewable energy within our jurisdiction rather than relying on purchasing power from Washington State during peak demand times. We have tremendous cross-sector support for finding a path forward for the Williams Lake Power Plant, and in the absence of an agreement that provides a solution before the deadline, we have no choice but to send a delegation to advocate for this critical operation in person.”