Now that the Heartland Transmission Project has been given approval to proceed along the eastern route, will all the rhetoric and the fear mongering cease and be replaced by sane, objective debate?
That’s not likely to happen, of course, because people on both sides are too passionate about this subject.
Those who oppose the construction of the 500-kilovolt double-circuit power line that will move power from plants near Lake Wabamun to Strathcona County argue the line is not needed, is too costly and poses health dangers to anyone living near the route.
Whether the power is needed or not won’t be known for a number of years. While most of the original 13 upgraders planned for the Fort Saskatchewan region are on hold, there’s nothing to say oil and gas prices won’t surge again and those projects will go ahead. Then the transmission line will be necessary.
The Alberta government has often been accused of not planning for the future, whether it’s health care, education or the economy. Building the Heartland line is planning for the future.
The one thing we don’t want to happen in the future is being short of power and facing the kind of brownouts that residents in southern Ontario have faced in recent years.
As for the health issue, at some point we have to put trust in the experts, not the lobbyists or the special interest groups. Various studies have come to different conclusions, but the World Health Organization in 2007, the Canadian Federal-Provincial-Territorial Radiation Protection Committee in 2005 and the National Cancer Institute in the U.S. all came to the conclusion there is not enough solid evidence to support the belief that electromagnetic fields cause cancer.
Of course nobody wants a large, unsightly power line built next to their home. Just as no one wants the Anthony Henday next door, or those train tracks or, in St. Albert, any group homes or anything that might impact the value of their house. It’s not usually about anything except money.
In fairness, there certainly should be compensation for those homeowners who will have the transmission line built near them because they will have difficulty selling their house and getting even close to full value for it.
What will perhaps never be known is the true cost of putting the line underground, which would eliminate the complaints about the unsightly towers and alleviate some of the health concerns. Figures in the hearing ranged from $52 million to $300 million. It’s difficult to believe it will cost $610 million to build and install the huge towers, yet another $300 million, as the Alberta Utilities Commission said in its ruling, to put the line underground.
Perhaps instead of spreading their arguments between health, cost and sight issues, those groups opposed to the line should have focused all their attention on getting AUC to force the line underground.
In the end one has to weigh the good of the many versus the complaints of the few. And too often it’s the small, vocal minority that sways officials to make decisions that do not benefit the quiet majority. In this case, for the long-term benefit of all Albertans, the officials probably got it right.
