By Jeremy Deutsch – Kamloops This Week

Published: March 19, 2010 5:00 PM
Updated: March 22, 2010 9:44 AM

This is a screenshot of the actual message on Bill McQuarrie’s Facebook profile page, as captured and saved in the Kamloops This Week newsroom at 11:54 a.m. on Thursday, March 18.

The head of a regional science organization working with the Aboriginal Cogeneration Corporation to bring a gasification plant to Kamloops maintains a controversial posting on his Facebook page isn’t from him.

Bill McQuarrie, executive director of Interior Science Innovation Council, said he has no idea how the posting appeared on his Facebook page on Thursday morning.

The posting refers to an unreleased announcement that the ACC was abandoning its plans in Kamloops.

It’s addressed to someone named Kim, presumably Kim Sigurdson, the president of the ACC.

The posting also claims ACC’s air-quality permit will remain valid until the company picks a new location.

It also has some unflattering assertions that someone named Terry — presumably Kamloops-North Thompson Liberal MLA Terry Lake — has been “giving (sic) his marching orders.”

McQuarrie contends the details in the posting are untrue.

“It isn’t mine,” McQuarrie told KTW.

“Number one — I would never write anything like that and, number two, that’s not how we do business.”

He said he was told of “weird stuff going on” with his Facebook page on Thursday by a friend.

McQuarrie said he believes his page was hacked and intends to look in to the matter.

“I wish I had a really easy, brilliant answer for you, but social networking is not my forté,” he said.

The posting has since been removed from McQuarrie’s Facebook page, though KTW has a copy.

The ACC sent out a press release late Thursday stating the company is seeking a new site for its gasification plant.

After a recent forum, Sigurdson said he needed to take some time to decide whether he’ll proceed with the plan.

Word that his name was brought up in the post is a surprise to Lake.

He said he has no idea where it came from and and maintained it’s not true.

“I think it’s totally ridiculous,” he said.

While KTW came across the message on Thursday morning, the message was sent to various media outlets Friday by Ruth Madsen, chairwoman of Thompson Institute of Environmental Studies and a vocal opponent of the ACC.

Lake questioned how Madsen got a hold of the message.

Madsen would only tell KTW she received the message from a fellow opponent of the ACC plan who is also a Facebook friend of McQuarrie.

“It seems quite ridiculous and a bit of a bullying tactic to me,” Lake said of Madsen’s decision to distribute the message.

He does acknowledge that he has been working with the ISIC, the ACC and ministry to find another community to put the project.

Lake added he has never been given or taken any marching orders from Victoria.

Madsen, who is currently in California, said she consulted a lawyer before distributing the message.

“We found it really shocking,” she said of the message. “I would not have believed it. If I’m to believe that was written by him, and who knows if it was him or not, i don’t want to believe things are that bad.

“If that was written by him and the facts are true, then things in B.C. are worse than we thought.”

In January, the ACC was issued an air-discharge permit by the Ministry of Environment to allow the Manitoba-based company to operate a gasification facility, where creosote-treated railway ties would be chipped and incinerated as part of an energy-creation facility.

But the plan has ignited a flurry of opposition from the public and local politicians.

THE FACEBOOK MESSAGE:

Hi Kim:

Just got the thumbs up call from Victoria with no suggestions or changes to the press release. Also just talked with Terry and reminded him that he’s

not to mention any of the possible locations and we simply talk about the great science and technology. He’s been giving his marching orders from above and has his lines memorized.

On the permit front, your current one remains valid as you actually haven’t moved. When a new location is selected you resubmit for approval of that location and as Terry put it, “As long as it isn’t down in the Fraser Valley, you’ll be fine.” That being said and the hammer you continue to hold is your permit for Kamloops, so you still hold the card that can come back to bite Kamloops politicians.

Bill