The B.C. government has assigned a former deputy minister to help the Capital Regional District develop a detailed sewage plan.
Peter Milburn, an ex-deputy minister of finance and transportation, will act as a “facilitator” on the project, Community Minister Peter Fassbender said Wednesday.
“Peter has a tremendous background,” he said.
“He’s been responsible for overseeing huge projects, as complex if not more complex. So I think he brings a really good base of experience.”
Fassbender, who appeared before the CRD’s sewage committee on Wednesday, said Milburn will be tasked with developing a “road map” for the project.
“I think he’s going to be able to help move that forward in a positive way.”
Victoria Mayor Lisa Helps, chairwoman of the CRD’s core area liquid waste committee, welcomed the appointment.
“We’re lucky that the province has taken such a keen interest in this file and that they’re providing the highly skilled resources that we need to get the job done,” she said.
Helps also expressed appreciation for Fassbender’s appearance at the CRD committee meeting.
“I mean, no one can remember the last time a provincial minister’s come to a CRD committee meeting,” she said, adding that bodes well for ongoing B.C. government support.
“He’s not treasury board,” she said. “He’s one member of cabinet. But if we do the work together that he thinks needs to be done, it will be a project that he will be able to go to treasury board and champion, and the government will have been involved in putting the business case together.”
The CRD recently received a six-month extension from the federal government to submit a detailed treatment plan.
The proposed two-plant option calls for one plant to be buried at Victoria’s Clover Point and a second at either McLoughlin Point or Macaulay Point in Esquimalt.
