Holding the meeting in Kaslo was controversial because the EAO refused to have a meeting in Nelson, BC (Population 9,258) which is a more populated and centrally located Kootenay town. Many area residents felt the decision to hold the meeting in Kaslo was an attempt by the EAO and AXOR to keep the meeting small and manageable Lee-Ann Unger from the West Kootenay Eco-Society, a local organization which had worked hard to raise awareness about the event looked a little dejected. There were just a few cars sprinkled about, and several people milling around outside.
Gradually, though, people started to trickle into the parking lot: young families with children, kayakers from Nelson, concerned Kaslo residents, local BC Wildlife Federation members, loggers, fishers, hunters, hippies and business people. People came with signs and petitions, and an urgent concern about the fate of Glacier Howser Creeks and the 600 other creeks and rivers in BC that have been staked by private power companies.
The crowd swelled to the point that people who couldn't fit into the parking lot spilled onto the grass, up the hill and onto the street. And people still kept coming it was amazing! Then, just before the rally started, a cheer erupted from the crowd as three buses from Nelson pulled up.
The rally before the open house featured local politicians, First Nations, the Eco-Society, the Wilderness Committee, and hundreds of people who wanted to keep BC's rivers wild and our power public.
At 7 PM, the official open house Question and Answer started. A long line of people wound around the school to get into the gym. It took almost half an hour to get everyone into the gym!
Soon every seat was taken and hundreds of people had to stand up in the aisles and sit on the floor to squeeze into the gym. An official count from an AXOR representative confirmed that over 1,100 attended more than the entire population of Kaslo!
For more than three hours, people voiced their opposition to the project, condemning the BC government’s rubber-stamp process and demanding that the environmentally destructive project be stopped. Damage to fish and endangered species habitat; the permanent diversion of water; weak environmental standards and a flawed environmental assessment process; and the loss of control of BC's rivers and public power system dominated the meeting.
It’s time to raise your voice. You have until July to let the BC Environmental Assessment Office and Premier Campbell know how you feel about Glacier and Howser Creeks staying wild.
