Protecting the environment trumps cost in planning sewage treatment for Saanich, Oak Bay and Victoria, according to an Ipsos Reid survey.
When respondents were asked the most important criteria for developing sewage treatment, the single-biggest priority at 31 per cent was: “removal of harmful materials from entering water and/or land.”
That was followed by minimizing cost to the taxpayer (19 per cent), safety to residents (15 per cent) and no odour (nine per cent).
Victoria Mayor Lisa Helps, who chairs the Capital Regional District east-side select committee, said the survey results match what she’s been hearing in the community.
“Along with just get it done,” she said.
Helps said an online survey that anyone could fill out just closed, so it will be interesting to see if those results mirror those of the Ipsos Reid survey.
A total of 452 residents answered the poll, conducted from May 14 to 19. It is believed to be accurate to within plus or minus 5.3 per cent.
Overall, 76 per cent of residents said they were familiar with the issue of sewage treatment in the CRD, including 22 per cent who said they were very familiar and 54 per cent who said they were somewhat familiar.
Victoria, Saanich and Oak Bay are in the midst of an intensive public process looking for input on where to build a sewage-treatment plant with the hope of narrowing down sites by the end of this month.
It took four years for the Capital Regional District to settle on Esquimalt’s McLoughlin Point as a site for a regional sewage-treatment plant.
That plan went off the rails last year, when Esquimalt refused to rezone the site and the province declined to overturn the decision.
After the McLoughlin option went down the toilet, local governments split into two parallel groups to explore options: an east-side group composed of Victoria, Saanich and Oak Bay, and a west-side group comprising Esquimalt, View Royal, Colwood, Langford and the Songhees First Nation.
The CRD’s sewage-treatment project has a budget of $788 million.
The federal and provincial governments are to contribute two-thirds of the cost, and the remainder would come from local taxpayers.
