EU19 Stakeholder Participation in Decision-Making

BC Hydro has a comprehensive program of stakeholder engagement and consultation in regards to energy planning and infrastructure development on major capital projects within the generation, transmission and distribution lines of business.

For example, the stakeholder outreach for the Integrated Resource Planning (IRP) process has included a series of consultation sessions with First Nations, environmental organizations (ENGO's), key stakeholders and the general public. The process includes two major phases of consultation with formal reporting and feedback mechanisms built into the program. Stakeholder input will inform a major piece of the resulting report of recommendations.

On the capital project consultations, BC Hydro follows a five-step program of stakeholder engagement and consultation that also includes formal feedback mechanisms that do alter the outcome of project details (e.g. changes to transmission routing).

The five steps are:

1. Establishing need for the project with stakeholders;
2. Establishing credibility with the community;
3. Ensuring that the benefits of a project out-weigh the costs;
4. That the project siting and consultation follows a fair process; and
5. That there is fair treatment of those affected (i.e. land-owners).