Greater Victoria’s contentious sewage treatment project was rebranded the “Seaterra Program” Monday by a civilian commission of experts that’s taken day-to-day decision-making away from local politicians.
The new name and logo for the long-running and divisive $783-million megaproject came amid a publicity blitz by the new program director, Albert Sweetnam.
Sweetnam, a former nuclear power official and engineering project manager from Ontario, unveiled the rebrand during meetings with Victoria media.
“It’s reflecting what we’re trying to do, which is clean up the ocean, as in the sea, and the elements associated with the biosolids, which is the land,” he told the Times Colonist.
He called it a “changing of the guard” in the project, which sees the civilian commission of experts take over procurement and construction from the Capital Regional District’s sewage committee.
CRD politicians on the committee have been planning the project since 2006, but agreed to hand over day-to-day control in exchange for half a billion dollars in funding from the federal and provincial governments, which equates to two-thirds of the project’s budget.
Local politicians retain control over plant locations and the overall budget. Sweetnam acknowledged those politicians still need to make several key decisions before he has a final plan to execute.
Among the holdups is a zoning dispute between Esquimalt and the CRD at McLoughlin Point. The CRD has shortlisted three firms to build a treatment plant at McLoughlin, without a zoning agreement.
“My expectation would be we would not sign a McLoughlin treatment plant contract until this was settled,” said Sweetnam. The commission hopes to sign a deal by March or April, he said.
CRD politicians are also unhappy with the Hartland landfill as the site of a biosolids centre to treat leftover sludge, which would require an 18-kilometre pipe from McLoughlin. The CRD sewage committee is expected to hear about other options during an in-camera meeting Wednesday.
Sweetnam said he won’t sign any contracts for Hartland either, until politicians have made up their minds.
Sweetnam, a former vice-president of nuclear energy at Ontario Power Generation and a senior vice-president at engineering giant SNC-Lavalin, said he was well aware of the CRD project’s controversy when he started his job last month.
“I had a feeling of what I was getting into,” he said. “What I didn’t fully understand was actually the magnitude of the municipal politics that are involved.”
Sweetnam said he’s seen similar opposition to much larger projects he headed in Ontario and around the world.
“I’ve been through it, I’ve done it, I understand how it works and I understand we need to get as much public support as possible,” he said.
Reaction to the Seaterra rebranding, which cost $15,000, was mixed.
“Is that the way they want to spend taxpayer money?” asked Esquimalt Mayor Barb Desjardins, a vocal critic of the current plan’s impact on her township.
“That’s a commission decision. I’m sure we at CRD will hear back from the public as to whether they think that’s appropriate.”
Langford Coun. Denise Blackwell, who chairs the CRD sewage committee, said “it’s a good idea” and pointed to the success of the Seattle-area Brightwater treatment project’s brand.
Saanich Coun. Vic Derman said the new name doesn’t address the CRD’s many failures in planning. “They might as well call it Failure-to-do-due-diligence,” he said. “That’s probably more accurate.”
Victoria Mayor Dean Fortin gleefully channelled Shakespeare: “What’s in a name? That which we call a rose, by any other name would smell as sweet.”
Richard Atwell, organizer of StopABadPlan.ca, said the CRD plan will capture only some of the toxic chemicals in sewage, and will launder them back into the ocean through biosolids and rain.
“Perhaps ‘Sea Terror’ would be a better name for this project,” said Atwell.
