March 31, 2013


ARESST on Facebook and Twitter: @stopabadplan  

CONTENTS OF THIS BLOG:

ARESST ACTION
UPCOMING ACTIONS: 

5 APRIL: DEBATE ON SEWAGE PLAN AND ESQUIMALT SEWAGE SLUDGE FACTORY SITE
- 16 APRIL: VIC WEST COMMUNITY ASSOC. SEWAGE SLUDGE PLANT FORUM 

ONGOING ACTIONS:

- SIGN PETITION!
- ARESST BANNERING EVENTS
SLUDGE PLANT CHANT!
COLLECTING MINISTER MOORE FORM LETTER REPLIES FOR 'WALL OF SHAME'
- SEWAGE MINI-POSTER FOR YOU!

PAST ACTIONS

- ARESST RESPONSE TO CRD SEWAGE MEET CANCELLATION
- RSTV WEBSITE AMENDED
MORE VIDEO COVERAGE OF RALLIES
CFAX AUDIO COVERAGE OF RALLIES
MYSTERIOUS SLUDGE PLANT SITINGS? 
ESQUIMALT'S NEW SEWAGE BURDEN: THE SEWAGE SLUDGE PROCESSING PLANT COMPLEX
- CRD SEWAGE COMMISSION "DREAM TEAM"
CRD SEWAGE NEWS

- EDITORIAL, TIMES-COLONIST: BIOSOLIDS [sic] PLAN NEEDS A RETHINK
- CFAX INTERVIEWS VIC WEST COMMUNITY ASSOC PRESIDENT - NOTES
- FORMER VICTORIA ALDERMAN ERIC SIMMONS: LETTER POSTED ON BEHALF OF
- EDITORIAL, NEWS GROUP OF PAPERS: STOP CRAPPING ON ESQUIMALT 
SLUDGE SITE IN ESQUIMALT REVEALED DAYS AFTER COUPLE BOUGHT HOUSE ACROSS THE STREET
SECRECY BELONGS IN VOTING BOOTH, NOT COUNCIL CHAMBERS

LETTER LINKS

- MANY LETTERS!
 - SEND IN YOUR LETTERS!

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ARESST ACTION:

UPCOMING ACTIONS: 

5 APRIL: DEBATE ON SEWAGE PLAN AND ESQUIMALT SEWAGE SLUDGE FACTORY SITE

CFAX event:

Friday April 5 at 9am, broadcast live from Esquimalt Town Hall.

Stephen Andrew hosts debate on sewage plan and CRD's $17 million purchase of land on Viewfield Road.

Doors open at 8:30am.

Seating limited - on a first come, first serve basis.

C-FAX 1070 will have more information.


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16 APRIL: VIC WEST COMMUNITY ASSOC. SEWAGE SLUDGE PLANT FORUM 

Diane Carr, president of Victoria West Community Association confirms that VWCA will host public forum on the regional sewage
sludge facility proposed for Viewfield Road:

Tuesday, April 16, 7:00 pm

Victoria West Community Centre,
521 Craigflower Road at Pine Road.
Purposes of Forum:
  1. Provide education on the process to decide on a location for the STP;
  2. Provide education about the STP (i.e. what is does; what it looks like; local impacts; risks; etc.);
  3. Determine consensus regarding locating the sludge plant on Viewfield Road;
  4. Determine actions/next steps
Everyone is welcome. 
STOP PRESS - CRD REFUSES TO PARTICIPATE IN OUR PUBLIC FORUM!
VWCA: CRD Sludge Treatment Plant (STP) Public Forum:
http://www.victoriawest.ca/index.php/news-hidden/428-proposed-sewage-treatment-plant

VWCA Face Book site: 

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ONGOING ACTIONS:

SIGN PETITION!

Go to our stopabadplan website and sign petition: http://stopabadplan.ca/

ARESST BANNERING EVENTS

Will be continuing weekly street bannering by ARESST members in various parts of the region. Our focus is now on Esquimalt and Vic West neighbourhoods.


Brian and Lorne (Colin and John out of view) at Esquimalt Gorge Park on Thursday


Michael and Colin at Tyee & Bay streets last Tuesday 

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SLUDGE PLANT CHANT!


HEY HEY HO HO 

VIEWFIELD SLUDGE PLANT GOT TO GO!

HEY HEY HO HO 
SEWAGE SLUDGE PLANT NO, NO, NO!

VIC WEST FOLKS DON'T LET GO
SEND A MESSAGE - SLUDGE PLANT NO!

E-TOWNERS CAN UNITE
TO FIGHT THIS AWFUL SLUDGE PLANT BLIGHT!

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COLLECTING MINISTER MOORE FORM LETTER REPLIES FOR 'WALL OF SHAME'

Richard Atwell
ARESST Facebook
29 March

I'm collecting all the form letter replies from MP James Moore for a "wall of shame". Moore is the Minister responsible for BC and came to town last July with his promises of sewage funding and new regulations in place.

Send PDFs to: stopabadplan@gmail.com

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SEWAGE MINI-POSTER FOR YOU!


NEW - WINDOW MINI-POSTER FOR YOUR CAR, HOME, SHOP, OFFICE WINDOW

Just open jpg below, adjust for printing horizontally, and print! 
- Tape in your car, home, office, shop window! 
- Or affix to fenders, paniers, carts, back-packs, brief-cases, lunchpails! 
- Tape onto your toilet tank for guests to marvel at!


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PAST ACTIONS

ARESST RESPONSE TO CRD SEWAGE MEET CANCELLATION

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE March 27, 2013

Re: CANCELLATION OF REGULAR CRD WASTEWATER MEETING, APRIL 10, 2013

In a bold move, the CRD has cancelled the previously scheduled April 10th meeting of the CRD’s “sewage committee”.
Core Area Liquid Waste Management Committee (CALWMC) meetings are normally held on the second Wednesday of the month. Given the growing  public concern over the CRD decision-making process, it seems very odd that a regularly scheduled meeting should be cancelled more than two weeks in advance, as if nothing of importance exists, or may emerge, to discuss.

Public outcry over last week’s announcement that the CRD had purchased $17 million worth of properties in Esquimalt for a proposed bio-solids facility also seems to be rising: two rallies held in Esquimalt on Saturday March 23rd drew nearly 500 people.

With this April 10th meeting cancelled, taxpayers will be left with no opportunity to address the committee about their concerns until May 8th, only six days before a Provincial Election that will likely produce a change of government.

This mega-project was initiated in 2006, and approved by the Campbell administration in 2010. Given the turmoil surrounding the project and the Committee, and the prospect of a new government, the newly appointed Minister of Environment (who will have total authority over the project) may well introduce substantial changes to meet the emerging deficiencies.

Support for alteration of the plan and timetable has already been publicly expressed by MLA Maurine Karagianis, MP Randall Garrison, and MP Murray Rankin (via Garrison).

ARESST is an association of professional people with expert knowledge of wastewater treatment in the Victoria region.


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RSTV WEBSITE AMENDED

Dr Shaun Peck, webmaster extraordinaire of Responsible Sewage Treatment Victoria, has recently made more changes, including  tweeking the RSTV site to put in links to the ARESST News Blog and Stop a Bad Plan (now found as links on the top links bar): 


Shaun's RSTV website specializes in holding both the active, emerging science and the archive of several years of science that looks at marine-based sewage treatment and sewage treatment related issues. In addition, previous published letters by scientists, engineers, politicians and community leaders can be found in the right-hand marginal links. 

So many good ones, but here are just a few of the jewels: 

Marine Pollution Bulletin Letter - October 2008

Public Health Officials' Statement 2008

Public letter with 92 signatures November 2007

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MORE VIDEO COVERAGE OF RALLIES

CTV coverage of the Esquimalt Rally at Saxe Pt March 23, 2013:
CTV News Esquimalt rallies against CRD:

CHEK News Esquimalt rallies at Saxe Point and Hereward Park:

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CFAX AUDIO COVERAGE OF RALLIES

CFAX is the best and Al Ferraby is first class. Here's the audio clip of the segment about the weekend rallies in Esquimalt:

http://stopabadplan.ca/media/130325_CFAX_Richard_Atwell.m4a

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MYSTERIOUS SLUDGE PLANT SITINGS? 
Richard Atwell  
ARESST Facebook
1:57am Mar 30

Terry Moore spoke with Dean Fortin and Graham Hill on CFAX last Tuesday, March 26, 2013:

http://stopabadplan.ca/media/130326_CFAX_Fortin_and_Hill.m4a

The normally evasive Fortin doesn't do a very good job of hiding his intentions: Saanich has the dump and he implied that Esquimalt has to "do its part" and get the Sludge Plant (forgetting any mention of the existing Macaulay Pump Station or the proposed McLouglin Pt. Plant).

I expect CRD Directors to have an open mind and to weigh the feedback that comes back from the community before making a decision. Will that be the case with Fortin? How is the committee going to decide based on the feedback? That's a mystery process.

Here's a photo of an older system configuration showing the Sludge Plant sited in Victoria before the Saanich and Victoria CRD Directors voted the sludge plant out of their municipalities and into Esquimalt:



That location is centered around the Budget Steel at David St. and Pleasant St.

Now, with all the super secrecy surrounding in-camera land deals, how exactly did that red circle make it onto the map before the land was acquired by the CRD? Who owns it?


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ESQUIMALT'S NEW SEWAGE BURDEN: THE SEWAGE SLUDGE PROCESSING PLANT COMPLEX

Note from John Newcomb:

Calling it the SSPPC rather then the CRD lingo, Biosolids Energy Centre, more accurately reflects the truly large, industrial scale of what CRD really intending to operate in the Esquimalt neighbourhood on Viewfield Road.

According to a CRD report, even though the Wilson Foods properties total 1.7 hectares right out to the property lines, an SSPPC would require MINIMUM of 2 ha for several buildings up to 8 metres (26 feet) high and for digester tanks up to 14 metres (46 feet) high. (page 1 of the Report)

SSPPC processes include:

- sewage sludge screening
- thermophilic anaerobic digestion complex
- energy and heat extraction building for sewage sludge management
- sludge dewatering building
- thermal drying
- unenclosed receiving station for fats, oils, and grease (FOGs) and organic waste
- operations building
- gas flaring units
- phosphorus (struvite) recovery facilities
- odour control facilities
- biogas treatment & scrubbing facility.

However, not included here is are large underground pipelines, major electrical transmission units, chemical trucks arriving at SSPPC and biodigester trucks leaving the SSPPC.

Source: http://goo.gl/IdWbU (page 1 of the report)


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CRD SEWAGE COMMISSION "DREAM TEAM"

Brenda Eaton (Chair) – Corporate Director. Brenda Eaton is a corporate director serving on the Boards of Powertech, Fortis BC and Transelec...Previously, Ms. Eaton held a variety of senior positions in the B.C. Public Service, most recently as Deputy Minister to the Premier...

Fred Cummings – President and General Manager, British Columbia Rapid Transit Company Ltd. (2010 – Present). Mr. Cummings is a registered professional engineer who holds a Bachelor of Applied Science (Civil Engineering) from the University of Waterloo. 

Pam Elardo – Director, King County Department of Natural Resources and Parks, Wastewater Treatment Division (2010 – Present). 

Larry Hughes - Vice-President, Finance and Chief Financial Officer, West Fraser (2011 – Present).

Ivan Ing - President and Special Advisor, Rocklynn Capital Inc. (2010 – Present). Mr. Ing’s previous experience includes serving as the Managing Director and Head of Infrastructure Finance, National Bank Financial (2006 – 2010) and Vice President, Investments, Ernst & Young Orenda Corporate Finance Inc. (2005 – 2006).

Hew McConnell – President, Consensus Infrastructure Solutions Ltd. (2001 – Present). Mr. McConnell has over 35 years of national and international experience in the planning, financing, design, and operations of infrastructure in both the public and private sectors. During the period of 1990-1998, he was an executive in charge of Greater Vancouver sewerage and drainage utility, including capital upgrading for wastewater treatment in a similar scale to the Core Area Wastewater Treatment Program.

Colin Earl Smith - Management and Engineering Consultancy Practice (2007 – Present). Mr. Smith is a registered professional engineer who holds a Bachelor of Applied Science (Mining Engineering) from the University of British Columbia. Prior to his current role, Mr. Smith held several senior public sector positions from 1990 – 2007 including:Corporate Secretary and Chief Financial Officer, Vancouver Convention Centre Expansion Project.

http://www.crd.bc.ca/media/2013-03-27-ww-commission-members.htm

Remuneration: 
- These CRD Core Area Wastewater Treatment Commission members will get $750 per diem, but commission chair, vice-chair, members all get thousands of dollars in annual retainer compensation besides that. CRD Board 13 Feb minutes (bottom of page 2):
http://www.crd.bc.ca/minutes/capitalregionaldistr_/2013_/20130213minutesrb/20130213minutesrb.pdf


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CRD SEWAGE NEWS

EDITORIAL, TIMES-COLONIST: BIOSOLIDS [sic] PLAN NEEDS A RETHINK (aka "Sewage Sludge Processing Plan")

TIMES COLONIST
MARCH 23, 2013
CLICK HERE TO SEND LETTER TO TIMES COLONIST

If Esquimalt Mayor Barb Desjardins is feeling dumped on, it’s quite understandable. She and many others in Esquimalt were not happy that their municipality was chosen for the new regional sewage-treatment plant. Now the Capital Regional District wants to build a second component of the project in Esquimalt.

The CRD paid $17 million for a site along Esquimalt’s Viewfield Road with the idea of using it for the project’s sludge-processing facility.

The move seems heavy-handed, given Esquimalt’s doubts about the project and given that the decision to buy the land was made behind closed doors. It became public only after the deal was done.

The CRD has already decided Esquimalt will receive no compensation for the plant to be built on McLoughlin Point. Now a commercial site will be taken out of Esquimalt’s tax base, cutting further into the municipality’s revenues. Worse, the second facility has the real potential to depress property prices, diminish residential quality of life and drive businesses away.

The facility will be known as the Biosolids Energy Centre, and its purpose will be to extract byproducts such as biogas, biofuel and fertilizer from the sludge left over after the sewage is processed at the McLoughlin Point plant.

The original plan was to pipe the sludge 18 kilometres to the Hartland landfill. Building the biosolids facility in Esquimalt would not significantly lower the capital costs, given the price of the land, but operating costs would be lower.

A two-kilometre pipeline would also be less disruptive, says CRD sewage committee chairwoman Denise Blackwell. The disruption from pipeline construction would be considerable, but temporary. The effect of establishing the sludge plant in Esquimalt would be permanent.

It sounds like short-term gain for long-term pain.

“Biosolids” has an environmentally friendly ring to it, and extracting resources from it is the direction to go, but it’s still sewage sludge and it’s a hazardous material. The plant site is on a commercial/light-industrial street, but it’s one street away from historic Old Esquimalt Road.

You can be sure any plan to put such a facility near an upscale neighbourhood would not get to first base. Yet sewage from expensive houses is just as malodorous as that from humbler homes. Why not distribute the consequences of disposing of it more evenly?

Last December, the CRD rejected the idea of an independent assessment of the project. Oak Bay, View Royal, Colwood and Esquimalt — the communities calling for the assessment — didn’t have enough votes to counter those of Victoria and Saanich. Representation on the sewage committee is weighted by population, and that’s how it should be.

Yet Colwood Mayor Carol Hamilton made a good point when she said it seems as if the plan’s biggest supporters are the municipalities least affected by the proposal.

Of course, it makes sense to process the sludge near the treatment plant — the nearer the better. More pressure should be exerted on the federal government to give up some Department of National Defence land, perhaps on Macaulay Point, which is close to McLoughlin Point.

Sewage processing is essential, but no one likes the idea of living next door to the required infrastructure. We like to put our privies at the far end of the back yard. However, sacrifices must be made, and sometimes those sacrifices are required of a few for the good of all.

But forcing two major sewage facilities on Esquimalt is asking too much.

The plan is not carved in stone — the CRD will seek public input on the proposal before making a final decision.

The public will likely tell the CRD to back up and try again, this time with more consultation and less secrecy.

http://www.timescolonist.com/opinion/editorials/editorial-biosolids-plan-needs-a-rethink-1.96493

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CFAX INTERVIEWS VIC WEST COMMUNITY ASSOC PRESIDENT - NOTES

Diane Carr of Victoria West Community Association on CFAX, 27 March:

- Vote at Vic West regular meeting was to oppose Viewfield Road site. 

- Many houses within 100 metres normally get say in rezoning. 

- Going after politicians. Join forces with Esquimalt group. Campaign against this site. Insane choice of the site. Were the four Victoria reps asleep? 

- Process wrong. Site wrong. Hartland report notes needs 2 ha, only 1.7 ha. Digester stacks in building size of football field. 

- Must go back to drawing board. Not across the region where people are affected - structure not in Oak Bay.

- Everybody needs to write, call, ask BC Assessment asking for assessments to be lowered. 

- All at meeting last night, larger than usual crowd. Unanimous. Inserted "strongly" into the motion. Probably 60 attended. Represented 450 members

- Wants CRD to rethink decision. Choice between Hartland and Viewfield ask for choice of lesser of two evils. Do they need either of the two sites. People have been concerned for a long time. 

- This is the blue bridge all over again. 

- Politicians need to listen. 

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FORMER VICTORIA ALDERMAN ERIC SIMMONS: LETTER POSTED ON BEHALF OF

Louise Ryan 5:05pm Mar 26

Posted on behalf of Eric Simmons...

"As a former Alderman for the City of Victoria and a sitting representative on the CRD during the period of 1981-1990, I am shocked by the actions of the current CRD in their plans to place the land-based sewage plant in the commercial, residential, school areas of the Municipality of Esquimalt.

My feelings in this matter are summed up by two quotes from the Times Colonist. One from their editorial of Saturday March 23 entitled "biosolids plan needs a re-think" and the final sentence states "the public will likely tell the CRD to back up and try again, this time with more consultation and less secrecy".

The second quote is from Ian Hunter in the Times Colonist of Sunday, March 24th, the final paragraph stating "as the Cyprus Parliament told Brussels and Berlin, Esquimalt should tell the CRD and, by extension, the Province and Ottawa "to back off and think again".

Eric Simmons,
Former Alderman, City of Victoria.

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STOP CRAPPING ON ESQUIMALT 

Editorial
Victoria News/Saanich News/Oak Bay News/Goldstream Gazette
March 26, 2013 4:17 PM
Click here to send letters to VICTORIA NEWSSAANICH NEWSOAK BAY NEWS,  GOLDSTREAM GAZETTE

The uproar in Esquimalt the past week may well have been heard across the Juan de Fuca Strait, where pro-sewage treatment advocates are watching every move we make on the project.

News that the Capital Regional District is considering a site in the Esquimalt industrial park for a planned biosolids processing facility, to go with the main treatment plant on the Esquimalt waterfront, left residents and nearby property owners feeling they had been crapped on yet again.

CRD core area liquid waste management committee chair Denise Blackwell’s comments that a biosolids plant on Viewfield Road would save between $6 million and $7 million annually in operating costs over a plant built at Hartland were telling. Regardless if the $17-million land purchase was speculative, the decision shows which way the committee is leaning.

That a consultation process is being planned to help the CRD choose between the two sites is small consolation to the property owners in the Viewfield neighbourhood, which touches on Esquimalt and Victoria.

Given its siting, the McLoughlin Point treatment plant is likely to have less of a deleterious effect on property values than a biosolids plant on Viewfield, even if the smell and noise are well contained.

Both residential and industrial values are bound to drop as a result of last week’s news, in the short term at least. Whether the CRD ultimately chooses to locate the biosolids plant there or not, the damage may already be done.

Could all this have been avoided? Hard to say. Municipal land dealings are always done behind closed doors as a matter of course. And the biosolids plant, which may well have a smaller environmental footprint than the existing trucking warehouse on Viewfield, has to be built somewhere.

The CRD, duty-bound to spend taxpayers’ money wisely, no doubt felt compelled to snap up a property it believed could be an ideal site, especially when it could save millions.

But it better be ready for further outcry, and potential legal action, as the shit really has hit the fan in Esquimalt for a second time.


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SLUDGE SITE IN ESQUIMALT REVEALED DAYS AFTER COUPLE BOUGHT HOUSE ACROSS THE STREET



LINDSAY KINES
TIMES COLONIST 
MARCH 25, 2013

When Justine Semmens learned she was pregnant seven and a half months ago, she and her husband stepped up their hunt for a family home.

One thing they knew for sure: they wanted to stay in the Vic West-Esquimalt area where they have rented for the past five years.

“We absolutely fell in love with the neighbourhood,” Semmens said.

The young couple finally found a suitable house on Hereward Road earlier this year. But before buying, they did some research, even checking out the Capital Regional District’s plans for a new sewage treatment plant on McLoughlin Point in Esquimalt.

Semmens said she and her husband, Walter Ash, were concerned about plans to truck or pipe leftover sludge from the plant to Hartland landfill, where a biosolids facility would convert it into gas or solid fuel.

“Our thought was [the] trucking or will they be tearing up the road to put in the pipe?” Semmens said Monday. “How do we feel about that? Is that a problem for us?”

Ash contacted the CRD on Feb. 4 and was directed to a couple of websites that explained plans for the two sites. The couple then sank their life savings, as well as money from Semmens’s grandmother, into their first home. They paid $390,000 for the house, which the bank assessed at $408,000, Semmens said.

They took possession March 15.

Five days later, as Semmens was making supper, she heard on the radio that the CRD had paid $17 million to buy the Wilson Foods warehouse site across the street as a second potential site for the sludge plant.

“They gave the address and I thought, ‘No!’ ” said Semmens. She has a clear view of the site on Viewfield Road out her front window.

Semmens, who is finishing her PhD in history at the University of Victoria, and Ash, a software developer, called the CRD last week to find out why officials withheld such crucial information. They were told the land deal was negotiated in-camera, which prevented officials from releasing any details until it was finalized.

Denise Blackwell, chairwoman of the core area liquid waste management committee, issued a statement Monday saying there was, unfortunately, nothing the district could do. “We were in a legal agreement with the vendor that included non-disclosure until both parties finished the agreement.”

Blackwell said it was known for years that the district has been looking for another potential biosolids site closer to McLoughlin. But she said no final decision has been made and that the Viewfield Road site is one of two options being considered. A public-consultation process is slated to begin in late May.

Esquimalt residents have reacted with outrage to plans to put a sludge plant near family homes, small businesses, schools and a grocery store.

Semmens believes officials have failed in their duty of care to her family specifically and the neighbourhood in general.

Besides plummeting property values, she’s worried about raising a child across from a sludge plant with the potential for foul odours, spills and leaks.

“[From] all of the research I’ve done on these sorts of sites, there is a release of gas,” she said. “So, unless they’re inventing an entirely new strategy that I’ve never heard of, there’s going to be a smell.”

She puts little stock in the CRD’s reassurances that such plants can be built with minimal impact on surrounding neighbourhoods. “My sense is that the ‘scent-less’ sludge treatment is probably more expensive than the CRD can or will pay for.”



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SECRECY BELONGS IN VOTING BOOTH, NOT COUNCIL CHAMBERS

Jim Hume
TIMES COLONIST
MARCH 29, 2013

The proposed location of the sewage-sludge treatment plant in Esquimalt doesn’t bother me half as much as the way the decision to go there was made.

It can be argued that closed-door meetings can be OK when property acquisition or personnel matters are involved, but surely that rule should never have been applied in this case.

Why the CRD would opt for secrecy in such a sensitive matter and then make such a dismal defence of its clumsy and arbitrary move can only be attributed to spring madness brought on by breathing pollen-laden air. I
suggest it must be something in the air, because it wasn’t just the Capital Regional District making weird democracy-defying decisions as winter grumbled truculently into spring.

On March 19 in this spot, I made mention of former mayor Richard Wilson warning Victoria taxpayers in 1965 that he and his council were having a tough time wrestling the city’s budget into shape and that tax-wise things
looked “in one word — bleak.”

No such problems with our current team of Victoria city budget-wranglers. They took a run at the budget, but quickly whimpered number-crunching was too tough a game for them to play. But they did have a solution: the city could hire a consultant to show them how to cut costs by cutting programs.

I wish I was making this up. At the regional level, we have 17 million taxpayer dollars being offered for a sewage-sludge plant site without a word to the folks who put up the money or even a whisper to Esquimalt
citizens or council.

And at the single-municipality level, we have the grandmother of all local governments, staid old Victoria, shamefully admitting next year’s budget is beyond their management skills — and presumably beyond the skills of the already hired and handsomely paid management team.

I don’t know what skilled budget consultants charge for their services these days, but it seems strange to be hiring one or two as a money-saving program. Could it be that city council is looking for a non-elected target
for public wrath when programs are cut? You know: “Not our fault, the consultants made us do it.”

An advisory note to readers: If you happen to run into Hugh Curtis while going about your business, do not ask him for his thoughts on hiring consultants to help with a municipal budget unless you have time to spare.

If you do come across the former mayor of Saanich, and later provincial minister of finance through both rich and lean years, and choose to ignore my advice, be prepared for an eloquent dissertation on the responsibilities of mayors, ministers and senior managers at budget time.

snip, snip

http://www.timescolonist.com/secrecy-belongs-in-the-voting-booth-not-council-chambers-1.100798


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LETTER LINKS:

Amalgamation not the answer (Aleknevicus):
http://www.timescolonist.com/opinion/letters/amalgamation-not-the-answer-1.100065

[Land-based] Sewage treatment adds to ocean acidity (Shephard):
http://www.timescolonist.com/opinion/letters/sewage-treatment-adds-to-ocean-acidity-1.100068

DND should help with sewage-plant land (Peck):
http://www.timescolonist.com/opinion/letters/dnd-should-help-with-sewage-plant-land-1.100071

New homeowner irked by sludge-plant proposal:
http://www.timescolonist.com/opinion/letters/new-homeowner-irked-by-sludge-plant-proposal-1.97990

Sludge plant would be a good neighbour:
http://www.timescolonist.com/opinion/letters/sludge-plant-would-be-a-good-neighbour-1.97991

Good process missing in sludge-site selection (Ali Gaul):
http://www.timescolonist.com/opinion/letters/good-process-missing-in-sludge-site-selection-1.97989

Peninsula sewage plant has raised no objections:
http://www.timescolonist.com/opinion/letters/peninsula-sewage-plant-has-raised-no-objections-1.97988

Technology available to handle sewage properly:
http://www.timescolonist.com/opinion/letters/technology-available-to-handle-sewage-properly-1.97987

Sludge-site controversy an accountability issue:
http://www.timescolonist.com/opinion/letters/sludge-site-controversy-an-accountability-issue-1.97986

SEND IN YOUR LETTERS:
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END.