May 25, 2014

ACTIONS:
Send: in your letters!
CRD SEWAGE NEWS: 
Audio-Visual News:
Derman on Citizen's Forum
Mayor Leonard at SCAN
- The RITE Plan's Youtube Channel
News stories:
CRD sewage price tag goes up $5.2 million
Out of sight, infrastructure costs will mount
LETTERS:
Esquimalt should reconsider sewage issue (Carter)
CRD needs to examine newer technology (Haynes)
Province must intervene in regional chaos (Johns)
Sewage petition is a step in the right direction (Newcomb)
Use consensus to resolve dispute (Travers)
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ACTIONS:

 SEND IN YOUR LETTERS!
CRD SEWAGE NEWS

Audio-Visual News:

Derman on Citizen's Forum

Vic Derman was on Citizen's Forum on May 7th to talk about the McLoughlin Pt. impasse and compares resource recovery in the CRD plan vs. the objectives set out by the Ministry of Environment in 2007.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FUNl8p1tzgo
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Mayor Leonard at SCAN
On May 7th, Frank Leonard came to the monthly Saanich Community Association Network (SCAN) meeting and was asked about the sewage treatment project.

A question raised the issue of the many outstanding issues with the current sewage plan and suggested that "we're not married to the current plan".

Leonard's reply: "we're not law breakers".
http://theriteplan.ca/media/140507_SCAN_Frank_Leonard.m4a
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RITE Plan's Youtube Channel

Frequently updated with the most vital and interesting snippets that show the best and the worst of the CRD's sewage planning process

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News stories:

CRD sewage price tag goes up $5.2 million

Victoria News
May 16, 2014

Capital Regional District directors voted to add another $5.2 million to the $783-million secondary sewage treatment project last week.

The additional cash will pay for an oxidization process to further reduce the concentration of pharmaceuticals, personal care products and household cleaners in sewage waste.

The total price of the project is now slated at approximately $788 million.

B.C. Environment Minister Mary Polak has so far refused to intervene in the project after Esquimalt rejected zoning for a wastewater treatment plant at McLoughlin Point.

At a committee meeting May 14, Esquimalt Mayor Barb Desjardins asked that the Seaterra project be put on hold for six months or until they hear back from Polak, a vote that was delayed until next month.

http://www.vicnews.com/news/259594321.html
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Out of sight, infrastructure costs will mount

Dermod Travis

Times Colonist
May 25, 2014

Excerpt:

Then there’s the mother of all sewage treatment plants: the $788-million Capital Regional District Core Area Wastewater Treatment Program or CAWTP for short.

CAWTP has run into two small snags: a secret real estate deal that didn’t work out so well once it wasn’t so secret, and Esquimalt council giving a firm thumbs-down to the CRD’s rezoning application for McLoughlin Point.

To date, CAWTP has eaten up $65 million of its budget without so much as a sod-turning ceremony or, for that matter, a site to turn sod on. Costs may increase by a further $13.7 million to pay for barging construction materials in and adding new oxidation treatment.

Meanwhile, Victoria is also looking for answers as to how its $92.8-million Johnson Street Bridge replacement project ballooned in price by $7.9 million before a girder has been put in place.

http://www.timescolonist.com/opinion/columnists/dermod-travis-out-of-sight-infrastructure-costs-will-mount-1.1073413
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LETTERS

Esquimalt should reconsider sewage issue (Carter)
http://www.timescolonist.com/opinion/letters/esquimalt-should-reconsider-sewage-issue-1.1071845

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CRD needs to examine newer technology (Haynes)
http://www.timescolonist.com/opinion/letters/crd-needs-to-examine-newer-technology-1.1071842

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Province must intervene in regional chaos (Johns):
http://www.timescolonist.com/opinion/letters/province-must-intervene-in-regional-chaos-1.1071840

Sewage petition is a step in the right direction (Newcomb)


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Use consensus to resolve dispute (Travers)

TIMES COLONIST
MAY 19, 2014 

Re: “Province has role in sewage debate,” editorial, May 17.

The editorial invited the province to “step in and resolve the impasse over the proposal to build the [sewage] facility at McLoughlin Point.”

If this were a simple matter of compliance with the 2006 provincial edict for land-based sewage treatment, resolution might be simple, but it is not.

The best alternative to this impasse is not tougher decisions by senior elected officials. The “laws” of public policy-making tend to parallel laws of physics: For every action imposed, the reaction is equal and opposite. The sewage issue could then spiral into a protracted and more costly dispute.

Nor is compromise the answer, where each party makes concessions that meet everyone’s minimum standards. Nor is going to court, where the purpose is to interpret law, not reconcile conflicting interests.

Fortunately, new ways to resolve “impossible” public disputes have an attractive track record. In our competitive society, many are so conditioned to win-lose thinking, we cannot imagine other possibilities — like consensual approaches to dispute resolution.

The province now has the opportunity to bring new knowledge and skills for a second look. Interest-based negotiations that aim for agreements that work for all sides set a higher standard for better outcomes.

Wisdom requires the ability to go beyond given information and imagine innovative ways of reformulating the existing problem. It also requires use of intelligence, knowledge and creativity to serve the common good.

Our children will be grateful.

Ray Travers
Victoria

http://www.timescolonist.com/opinion/letters/use-consensus-to-resolve-dispute-1.1067110
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