It is becoming more apparent daily that the Capital Regional District lacks the tools to develop a rational wastewater plan. The evidence is all around. Deadlines have come and gone. Large expenditures have been made before the necessary arrangements were in place.
Obvious concerns, such as major traffic disruptions while pipelines are laid, have gone largely unstudied. Opposing factions drown any consensus.
The most economical option — a single plant for the region — appears to have fallen by the wayside, meaning whatever alternatives are chosen will greatly increase the total cost.
And after years of study, there is no agreement about what these alternative options might look like. New schemes are still being raised and toyed with.
However, it does appear that one of the preferred locations is Clover Point, Victoria’s most scenic waterfront park.
This latter is proof that something has gone terribly wrong. Are our mayors really proposing to excavate a major tourist attraction and construct a cavern that might well take years to finish?
We’re told not to worry, the work will be done expeditiously. But that’s what we were told about the Johnson Street Bridge.
When that refit was announced, it had a completion target of 2015. Latest estimates have pushed the closing date to late 2017, with costs nearly double the original budget.
The problem with the wastewater plan is that the CRD has no authority to impose a solution for this kind of project. Everything must be done with the consent of member municipalities, meaning each has, in effect, a veto.
The reason for this dysfunctional arrangement is historical. The CRD was set up as a co-ordinating body, to mediate between independent, self-governing municipalities.
That arrangement is reflected in its structure. All but three of the CRD’s 24 board members are mayors or councillors.
That means they are appointed, not by the region’s voters, but by the municipalities they represent. And understandably, that’s where their allegiance lies.
So what happens if voters in Victoria rise up against Clover Point? Mayor Lisa Helps has said she needs to hear if local residents approve. Where do we go if the answer is a resounding “no”?
That was the fate of McLoughlin Point, the site first chosen by CRD. Voters in that vicinity rose up in protest and Esquimalt council backed out.
The problem here is not an absence of goodwill. All of the local politicians who have participated in the planning process want the best for their communities.
The problem is that we lack a body with executive authority to cross municipal boundaries and do what’s best for the region as a whole. The CRD, as constituted, has not that power, and no amount of hand-wringing will alter this fact.
In the short run, only the provincial Environment Ministry can save our region from a rapidly approaching train wreck. The ministry has legal standing to order a solution, if the CRD cannot settle on a logical, cost-minimizing scheme by itself.
Ordinarily, no doubt, the provincial government would hesitate to take such a step. Indeed, it has been careful to distance itself from what the cabinet might see as a no-win situation.
But the sheer magnitude of the financial penalty facing local taxpayers, amounting to hundreds of millions, and stretching into the distant future, surely justifies a more active role by Premier Christy Clark and her colleagues.
There is a principle of reciprocity here. If you set someone a task, and it proves beyond them, there is a duty to lighten the burden, or assume it yourself.
That is the point we have reached with the new wastewater system. The province must step up.
