Power cuts can affect many aspects of our lives.
The status quo is not an option, with global warming a reality. This recent storm is just another nail in the coffin. It has revealed flaws in B.C. Hydro operations and in the B.C. Government.
On average, four times a year, my home and neighbourhood in Sooke are without electricity. I cannot remember a time when there weren’t power cuts in Sooke. Power outages are very disruptive for families, individuals and work-business life. Power cuts can make planning one’s life difficult.
Some people have had far greater problems than I have experienced. Like many other people, I could not get to work because the main road was flooded. Another major B.C. highway partly collapsed. Substandard infrastructure design, solution, maintenance issues affect us all.
How much has the B.C. economy lost because of this storm, and what about the damaged-infrastructure repair costs to make it right again? Are we living in a 19th-century economy or a 21st-century economy? We are very much reliant on energy, infrastructure and technology today.
Substandard solutions cause a chain of repeating structural problems that never go away. We have fantastic engineers in our province. We should use them to solve long-term solutions to our major B.C. infrastructure problems and maintain them well.
B.C. Hydro must do more to project and prevent electrical power cuts to areas like Sooke and other districts. We know what the winter problems are and what the summer problems are in infrastructure design and maintenance.
Global warming is with us. Let’s build back better in more resilient, reliable ways.
RELATED: Flooding, mudslide hampering travel through southern Vancouver Island
Howard Cannatella
Sooke
editor@sookenewsmirror.com
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