BC Hydro is facing external challenges that could prevent the company from building “a dam and 1,100-megawatt hydroelectric generating station on the Peace River in northeastern British Columbia.” They face a political and legal issue in the sense that the dam would be on Native territory, prohibiting its construction without legal consent. Furthermore, there are environmental implications, as the dam would flood 83 kilometres of land, destroying farmland and wildlife habitat.
This puts the government in a conflict of interest. Clearly, they would want to build the dam because it would generate much needed clean energy. Nevertheless, they are obligated to respect the privileges of the First Nations, who do not want the project to be approved.

Personally, I agree with First Nations people that the dam should not be built. BC Hydro published a poll that suggests most of the B.C. population is in favour of the project. However, the majority of the B.C. population is in the south where people are not directly impacted by the flooding. I would be interested to see how the poll results would differ if more people were directly impacted by the project’s flooding. Perhaps then, the project would be more opposed.

Sources:

http://www.vancouversun.com/news/First+Nation+chiefs+stage+Site+showdown/10215965/story.html

https://www.bchydro.com/news/press_centre/news_releases/2014/site-c-opinion-poll-2014.html