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On December 11, 2017, British Columbia's NDP government made a landmark decision to continue construction on the partially built Site C hydroelectric dam, to the dismay of West Moberly and Prophet River First Nations, as well as settlers who reside along the Peace River. The decision also elicited frustration from NDP and Green Party voters, academics, environmentalists, and Indigenous peoples who, while distanced from the immediate fallout of the Site C dam, shared concerns about the multi-dimensional harm the hydroelectric project will cause to the river, to non-human beings, to local Indigenous and settler communities, and to the broader goals of reconciliation and environmentally just energy policies. The provincial government argued that the project, which was initiated by the BC Liberal Party in 2010, could not be halted because of an estimated $2 billion in sunk costs. Located just downstream from the W A. C. Bennett Dam (Site A), in Treaty 8 territory, the Site C dam will control the Peace River's flow and flood 5,500 hectares of the river's valley (McElroy). Responding to the impending destruction, Chief Roland Willson of West Moberly First Nations is leading efforts to stop the construction of Site C. Cognizant of the harm already caused by the W A. C. Bennett Dam, he states: "Only 30 per cent of the Peace River is left that we have access to, and they are going to flood half of that to build Site C. We want them to leave it alone" (qtd. in Hunter). For people like Willson, the dam represents a looming environmental justice disaster, in which water's autonomy and life-giving promise to those beings who live in inseparable relation to the river are sacrificed for the short-term economic benefit of primarily settlers who live far to the south.
Rita Wong, the self-described "poet-scholar who works with and for water as she lives on unceded Coast Salish lands" (Wong and Goto), is a vocal critic of the Site C dam and an advocate for decolonial approaches to water.1 For Wong, Site C is an unnecessary and destructive project. It is also a flashpoint that highlights how different approaches to water make possible radically different futures. While the pervasive capitalist understanding of water-as a resource-has contributed to the creation of the...