Christy Clark misled voters on B.C. Hydro rates: Dix says | iNFOnews | Thompson-Okanagan's News Source
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Christy Clark misled voters on B.C. Hydro rates: Dix says

KELOWNA - Adrian Dix was in town today speaking out against Christy Clark's promise to keep BC hydro rates down for taxpayers.

Dix was joined by NDP candidate Carole Gordon at the Sails in downtown Kelowna to address what he calls another Liberal Party blunder - incompetent management of B.C. Hydro.

"They hid from the public the extent of the overrun - $342 million dollars that rate payers in West Kelowna and taxpayers in Kelowna and West Kelowna will pay for," he says.

Prior to the election, Clark made no mention of the overrun on the Northwest Transmission Line and instead told voters "she personally was holding BC Hydro rates down," Dix says.

While Clark was in Kelowna last week to reiterate that promise, energy minister Bill Bennett recently announced major increases in hydro rates were coming. Bennett stated this week everyone in government knew the rates would have to go up.

Though the overrun is technically in the hands of BC Hydro, Dix says the premier has no excuse for not being privy to the "extraordinary mismanagement." It was her own chief of staff who was in charge of B.C. Hydro at the time the budget overrun was discovered.

"They knew...and they kept it from the voters," he says.

Gordon also says Clark should have been well aware of the need to increase hydro rates.

"Three days later her own minister said the exact opposite, that everybody knew about this, everyone knew," she says.

Dix will be spending the rest of afternoon out knocking on doors in the Westside-Kelowna riding. He says it's tough to compete with the Liberal Party's cash fuelled campaign. 

"It's a big machine, they've got the premier, they're spending a ton of money... and we're running a grassroots campaign with volunteers," he says.

Carole Gordon will join Christy Clark and another six by-election candidates tonight at the Westbank Lions Community Centre for a forum discussion open to all members of the public. The forum starts at 6:00 p.m.

To contact the reporter for this story, email Julie Whittet at jwhittet@infotelnews.ca or call (250)718-0428.

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