BC Hydro has pushed for the dam despite a slew of controversies over its high greenhouse gas emissions and alleged disregard for wildlife habitat and First Nations hunting sites.

Nestled in the Peace River Valley in northeast British Columbia, almost 900 workers continue construction on BC Hydro’s Site C megadam project , which will generate enough energy to power about 450,000 houses per year after its scheduled completion in 2025.

Tipping Point covers environmental justice stories about and, where possible, written by people in the communities experiencing the stark reality of our changing planet.

Development has had to scale back considerably amid the looming threat of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19), BC Hydro said, but hundreds of industry workers are still on the ground doing “critical” jobs, like building tunnels and installing spillway gates.

Now, after Site C reported that several of its workers fell ill with cold- and flu-like symptoms, a dozen of those workers are in quarantine, following the advice of public health officials who are urging Canadians with COVID-19 symptoms to limit their exposure to others.

News of the sick workers reached settler and Indigenous communities both near and far, and people are worried COVID-19 could eventually spread fast if development sites aren’t shut down immediately.

“It’s not safe. What are people not getting about this?” said Connie Greyeyes, a member of Bigstone Cree Nation who lives in Fort St. John, located 20 minutes from Site C.

The coronavirus "actually reminded me of first contact (between Indigenous communities and European settlers) when we didn't have disease and it was brought to us—like smallpox," Greyeyes said.

"Indigenous people have a blood memory of the pain that's been caused."

Reports suggest development sites have already resulted in the spread of disease. The Mount Milligan copper and gold mine, about 60 kilometres from Nak’azdli Whut’en, a First Nation in north-central B.C., employs hundreds. According to nurses in the area, the spread of sexually transmitted diseases has correlated with the presence of the mine workers.