While the west and east committees agreed to stick with the status quo in cost apportionment, the decision wasn’t rubber-stamped by the core area liquid waste management committee.
Last week, committee member and Colwood Coun. Cynthia Day hoped to table the item on cost apportionment for a month, “until we have a better idea of what we’re intending to share and what the implications may be,” she said. “We have not provided full information, so making this decision would be premature.”
Many Colwood residents have voiced fears over unfair financial implications to city taxpayers of any sewage treatment solution that involves putting a plant in Colwood, especially when only 25 per cent of residents are hooked up to sanitary sewer lines.
In the wake of some big numbers last month, CRD staff offered the Eastside and Westside wastewater treatment and resource recovery select committees alternate cost-sharing formulas to those historically used in the region. Generally, infrastructure is paid for by the municipality that benefits most.
“We need something to take to the public,” said Victoria Coun. Ben Isitt, who added, “We can’t have constant delay.”
Oak Bay Mayor Nils Jensen argued against Saanich Coun. Vic Derman’s suggestion that the “option we choose will inform whether it’s fair.”
“I’m not sure that’s terribly fair to the public,” Jensen said. “One of the concerns the public has is how much it’s going to hit them in the pocketbook. The vast majority of people, that’s their first question. If it’s going to change, it should change now, and when we go out to the public … we can be honest with them about how much it’s going to cost.”
Five directors voted to delay while eight moved the cost apportionment forward.
Saanich Coun. Susan Brice noted both Eastside and Westside saw the numbers and had “fulsome debates” and that the numbers are likely to change. “This issue is not about the size of the pie. This issue is about how to divide up the pie,” she said. “The process of divvying up the pie … was one we were comfortable maintaining.”
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