January 11, 2011

- CALWMC 24 NOV MINUTES
- WASTE COMMITTEE FACES HURDLES 
- CFAX: VICTORIA SEWAGE PIPE REPLACEMENT
- HORGAN TO ENTER NDP LEADERSHIP RACE
- LETTER: STORM DRAIN POLLUTION NEEDS MORE EFFORT
- RECALL SHOULD FIRST REQUIRE MLAS TO ACCOUNT
----------------------------

CALWMC 24 NOV MINUTES

November 24, 2010 Core Area Liquid Waste management Committee Minutes:

Minister Coell letter to CRD Board, allowing CRD extension for another year before an audit: 

-------------------------------

WASTE COMMITTEE FACES HURDLES

Natalie North
Oak Bay News
January 10, 2011 

As Judy Brownoff looks to the future of the Core Area Liquid Waste Management Committee, she repeats a comment she’s been quoted on before.

“Like all things liquid waste, there will be refinements,” she says, acknowledging the difficulty of planning a $780-million project that spans decades into the future.

“Refinements” aside, the liquid waste chair clearly defines her committee goals for the upcoming year.

Brownoff says it’s critical that 2011 starts with a funding announcement from the federal government.

After the two-thirds federal and provincial funding is in place, the project’s commission model (a partially-elected board that will assume future planning responsibilities) must then be government-approved.

Once the commission model is accepted and advertising to fill the positions begins, Brownoff hopes to see procurement documents in place by the summer to “capture the innovation” required for planning. The 2016 goal date for completion is still realistic, she says, so long as outside forces don’t interfere with the process.

One of Brownoff’s fears was validated last month when word came down that no sewage decisions would be made at the provincial or federal level until after a new premier is selected.

“I keep checking the time frame (for 2016 completion) and I’m pretty confident,” she said.

“But I’m only confident if we get the funding approved and the commission model tied down in (early 2011), so we don’t get caught in anyone’s election cycle.”



--------------------------------

CFAX/STANDFORD COMMENT ON VICTORIA SEWAGE PIPE REPLACEMENT

Frank Stanford's comment

CFAX 1070
Jan 7, 2011

THEY TOLD ME BACK IN RADIO SCHOOL A LIFETIME AGO THAT SEWER PIPES WOULD PROBABLY BE THE MOST IMPORTANT STORY THAT I EVER WRITE, THAT NOBODY CARES ABOUT. 

THEY WERE RIGHT. 

I KNOW THAT. SEWERS AREN'T SEXY. A NEW REC CENTRE, OR GOD FORBID I MENTION IT AGAIN, A NEW BRIDGE...THOSE ARE SEXY. THEY MAKE HEADLINES. 

VICTORIA WAS IN A STATE OF UPROAR PRETTY MUCH ALL OF LAST YEAR OVER THE JOHNSON STREET BRIDGE. BUT THERE WAS ONLY ONE REPORTER AND NO CURIOUS TAXPAYERS IN THE ROOM YESTERDAY TO HEAR A COUNCIL COMMITTEE DEBATE THE BIGGEST SEWER PIPE REPLACEMENT EVER IN VICTORIA. 

GRANTED IT'S "ONLY" 30 MILLION DOLLARS. ABOUT HALF AS BIG A DEAL AS THE BRIDGE. WILL IT CREATE HALF AS MUCH PUBLIC ANGST? APPARENTLY NOT. 

WE MAY GRIPE WHEN THEY DIG UP THE STREET IN FRONT OF OUR HOUSE, OR WHEN WE GET THE TAX NOTICE, BUT THE TRUTH IS, WE DON'T WANT TO THINK ABOUT THE DETAILS. WE CARE VERY MUCH WHAT THE BRIDGE LOOKS LIKE AND WHETHER IT CARRIES TRAINS AS WELL AS CARS...BUT WE DON'T WANT TO THINK ABOUT WHAT'S IN THE SEWER PIPE.. WE JUST WANT IT TO BE THERE WHEN WE FLUSH THE TOILET. 

I UNDERSTAND THAT. FORTUNATELY, AND MORE IMPORTANTLY, SO DO THE POWERS THAT BE AT CITY HALL, WHERE THEY ARE PROCEEDING ON A RATHER LARGE PROGRAM WITHOUT BENEFIT OF PROPORTIONATE PUBLIC OUTCRY. 

THIS IS FRANK STANFORD 


------------------------------

ARESST: NONE of the NDP MLAs in CRD core sewage area have said anything against the Campbell government's CRD sewage plant
dictate,other than the P3 discussion. Might this be an opportunity to winkle an independent statement from leadership candidates? 

HORGAN TO ENTER NDP LEADERSHIP RACE

Times Colonist
January 9, 2011
Letter to TC editor: letters@timescolonist.com
Letter to John Horgan: John.Horgan.MLA@leg.bc.ca

Juan de Fuca MLA John Horgan is announcing Monday night that he will be running for the provincial New Democratic Party leadership.

Horgan is the Opposition energy critic and has led the NDP campaign against independent private-power producers. He was elected in Malahat-Juan de Fuca in the 2005 election and re-elected in the reconfigured riding in 2009.

Horgan publicly supported NDP Leader Carole James during the caucus revolt that led to her resignation last year. He successfully overcame cancer of the bladder in 2008.

Horgan started his career in Ottawa with the federal caucus in the House of Commons and worked as a political staffer in the NDP government of the 1990s and later as a management consultant.

He is planning a rally Monday night in his riding.

There are three declared candidates so far in the race: Fraser-Nicola MLA Harry Lali, Powell River-Sunshine Coast MLA Nicholas Simons and marijuana activist Dana Larsen.

Two more prominent current caucus members are expected to announce their plans this week: party house leader Mike Farnworth, from Port Coquitlam, and health critic Adrian Dix, from Vancouver-Kingsway.


-------------------------

LETTER: STORM DRAIN POLLUTION NEEDS MORE EFFORT

John Newcomb, 
Times Colonist
January 09, 2011

Re: "City cuts drain protection contract," Jan. 6

All of the CRD core municipalities need greater commitment to clean up dozens of problem storm drains, rather than wasting a $1 billion on an unnecessary land-based sewage treatment plant.

So many CRD core area storm drains are environmental and/or health issues, but the CRD hasn't done enough about the problems. 

Likewise, the initiative to clean up Rock Bay sediments will likely be of little lasting benefit if nothing is done to reduce the toxins flowing into Rock Bay from its three storm drains. 

Funding a fix for the storm drains would really do much more for our region's marine environment and our public health.

John Newcomb
Saanich



-------------------------------

ARESST: McCandless accountability commentary in ARESST News Blog
only as an example of what might be of some use for consideration by
ARESST members - the possibility of accountability about the provincial government's
position on the CRD sewage treatment plant. I do not necessarily agree or disagree 
with the current HST recall campaign itself.

RECALL SHOULD FIRST REQUIRE MLAS TO ACCOUNT

Explanation would help us decide if performance standard was met
Henry Mccandless
Times Colonist
January 11, 2011
Letter to TC editor: letters@timescolonist.com

All recall attempts should be required to let MLAs publicly explain their conduct in their duty as an MLA. But once a recall attempt is formally proposed, this public explanation should be mandatory and made so in the law.

The purpose of the accounting is to help citizens sensibly decide whether the MLA's actions have met a standard of performance that citizens are entitled to see them meet.

The basic performance elements of this assessment are the MLA's apparent ability and motivation. Citizens can get a reasonable understanding of the performance if the MLA's public accounting is full and fair.

For example, "I work hard for my constituents" won't suffice. All MLAs can be expected to say they do.

They should first set out their understanding of the performance standards for themselves in serving the public good that they think citizens can reasonably expect them to meet. They should then set out the extent to which they think they have met the standards and, if it is the case, they should further set out what they think stood or stands in the way of them achieving what they intended to achieve in the public good.

This accounting would include how they dealt with barriers in their way. The current recall attempts, based on how the B.C. executive government introduced the HST as a tax, are a case in point.

We finally have recall attempts based on public accountability and not simply to re-run the last election. The government did not give citizens a fair and complete public explanation before the fact of who would benefit from the proposed HST, how, and why they should, and who would bear what costs and risks, and why they should, both in the short and longer term.

In other words, the government did not account publicly before the fact for what it intended, to a standard of explanation that citizens are entitled to see met. It could have, but chose not to, given its legislative majority.

Yet the public accountability obligation is a society imperative, non-partisan, and tells no one how to do their job. It is simply explanation. An MLA's ability can be reduced by external forces that are validly beyond their control. MLA adherence to the will of political party leadership is not an external force beyond their control.

Did they try to give their constituents a fair and complete public explanation of the government's intentions and reasons before the vote? Or did the MLA simply vote the way he or she was told in serving power-seeking party solidarity and to stay in line with the party's internal rewards and punishments system?

In the case of the Ida Chong recall attempt, the MLA is a cabinet minister. This made her a party to the executive government's decision not to explain before the fact, publicly, fully and fairly, its intentions for the HST such that the intentions could be publicly challenged before the fact by knowledgeable people and organizations.

Thus at the personal accountability level, the question to be answered publicly by a targeted MLA is what the individual did or failed to do to help ensure full and fair government explanation of what it intended, and why.

This explanation is needed because, if a government's true underlying intentions are made public, they become subject to what a noted American activist calls the "Dracula Test."

That is, disclosed underlying intentions reasonably seen by citizens as not serving the public good will tend to self-destruct.

If the government's intentions and reasons (including its performance standards for what it proposes) are publicly explained, to a standard of explanation that citizens are entitled to see met, it can be expected to increase citizen trust.

Failure to account fully and fairly will tend to lower trust. And without citizen trust that is valid trust and not just blind partisan trust, society doesn't work properly.


http://www2.canada.com/victoriatimescolonist/news/comment/story.html?id=7f268310-f1c6-4f3c-983f-254724783fd0

--------------------------

END.

Posted by