Site C Dam Renamed, Northeast B.C. Squints in Disbelief
After years of cost overruns and one of the most expensive infrastructure projects in provincial history, B.C. has finally cut the ribbon on Site C by giving it a proper name. Residents of the northeast, who lost valley farmland, archaeological sites, and roughly a decade of public debate to the project, were informed of the new title via press release.
Reaction in Fort St. John ranged from blank stares to the specific kind of sigh reserved for parents naming a third child after a beloved family pet. One rancher reportedly read the announcement twice, looked at the reservoir, and asked the obvious question: 'That's it? That's the name?'
Government communications staff defended the choice as 'evocative of place and purpose,' which is the phrase civil servants use when they have run out of ideas but still have a banquet hall booked. A heritage consultant noted that the dam had been called Site C for so long that the placeholder had achieved a kind of brutalist honesty, and replacing it now felt like renaming a hospital after the contractor who built the parking garage.
Local favourites for an alternate name, including 'The Twelve Billion Dollar Puddle' and 'Lake Overbudget,' were not seriously considered. BC Hydro confirmed the new signage is already on order, in a colour described internally as 'reservoir grey.' The electricity, officials stressed, will flow regardless of what anyone calls it, which is also what they said about the price tag.