Environment Minister Mary Polak has said thanks but no thanks to an invitation to attend a Capital Regional District board meeting to outline whether the province will intervene in the impasse in rezoning Esquimalt’s McLoughlin Point for a sewage treatment plant.
Saying a “pivotal juncture” had been reached in the CRD’s sewage treatment plans and that “significant financial implications [were] associated with further delays,” CRD chairman Alastair Bryson wrote to Polak on April 30, extending an invitation to her to attend the May 14 board meeting to discuss the CRD’s earlier appeal for provincial assistance.
“I regret to inform you that, due to prior commitments, I will be unable to attend,” Polak said in a six-line response to Bryson. “We have received the material you have shared with us and are currently reviewing it with staff.”
The CRD appealed to the province for help after Esquimalt turned down its rezoning application for a sewage treatment plant at the former oil tank farm at McLoughlin Point. Esquimalt is changing the zoning to disallow a treatment plant there.
Seaterra chairwoman Brenda Eaton, meanwhile, announced last week that the commission had selected its preferred company from a short list of three to build a new sewage treatment plant at McLoughlin Point.
Eaton said it was prudent for Seaterra, the non-elected body appointed to oversee the sewage treatment program, to proceed to the next stage of negotiations with the selected company, Harbour Resource Partners, even though the use of the McLoughlin site is still in dispute.
Esquimalt Mayor Barb Desjardins is wondering about the implications of Seaterra’s announcement for the CRD. “Seaterra has made some significant announcements over the last few days and we are in a state of hold because there is a disagreement as to where we are with our plan,” Desjardins told the CRD finance committee on Wednesday.
The committee directed staff to prepare a report on the financial implications of the announcements.
