A panel of experts has been named to oversee the development of a sewage treatment plan for the Capital Regional District, including location selection.
Six people with a variety of expertise including construction, engineering and administration in the private, non-profit and public sectors have been assembled by the CRD. Four of the six have experience with the CRD.
The panel will be chaired by Jane Bird, a lawyer from the Vancouver office of Bennett Jones with experience in managing large-scale infrastructure projects for government and private sector.
Bird was CEO of Canada Line Rapid Transit Inc., a $2-billion public-private initiative to link Vancouver, Richmond and Vancouver International Airport with a 19-kilometre rail line.
Barb Desjardins, CRD chairwoman and mayor of Esquimalt, said the combination of high-level expertise and local experience means the project should make progress.
“It all rounds out to a very strong team,” said Desjardins. “I am very hopeful we can end up with something we can all be proud of.”
“You are never going to please everybody,” she said. But “we have done the best work we can and now we have to see what [the new panel] can come up with.”
The panel has been instructed to report on progress in July and have a final recommendation by the end of September. It is the result of a move by the provincial government to step in last month, urging the CRD board to cede control of the sewage project to an independent body.
The CRD doesn’t treat its sewage. Instead the waste is screened for solids and pumped directly into Juan de Fuca Strait.
But in 2006, an environmental assessment of the seabed around the outflow pipes revealed contamination. The provincial government ordered the CRD to start treatment.
The region came close two years ago. Plans were drawn up to build a plant on an abandoned industrial site in Esquimalt with an overall price tag of $788 million. But at the last minute the municipality of Esquimalt refused to grant zoning changes and the project collapsed.
That move led to a new round of public consultation and proposed sites.
Victoria’s Rock Bay was considered and rejected. The CRD started talking about two plants, one at Clover Point in Victoria and one at Esquimalt’s McLoughlin Point or Macaulay Plain.
But by then the price tag had ballooned to $1.13 billion and the province stepped in.
Community Minister Peter Fassbender told the CRD to accept the new panel or risk losing $500 million in provincial and federal money.
Who they are
The members of the Core Area Wastewater Treatment Project:
• Jane Bird (chairwoman) — A business adviser specializing in infrastructure with Bennett Jones in Vancouver. Bird has established a good reputation for managing large, complex, projects for government and private sector.
• Jim Burke — During 40 years in the engineering and construction industry as a tradesman and project manager, Burke has worked for the private and public sectors.
• Brenda Eaton
Corporate director serving on the boards of Fortis B.C., Transelec, TransLink and the B.C. Safety Authority. She has served with the United Way of the Lower Mainland, was vice-president and chief financial officer of the Capital Health Region, now part of Island Health, and was a deputy minister in the B.C. government. She was chairwoman of Seaterra, a now-dismantled body tasked with guiding the sewage project.
• Don Fairbairn — He has worked for more than 35 years in infrastructure development and finance. Involved with transportation, power generation, electricity transmission, pipelines and water treatment. He has held board positions in the public, private and non-profit sectors.
• Dave Howe — Vice-chairman of the CRD board, CRD director for the Southern Gulf Islands, chairman of the CRD finance committee, chairman of the Capital Regional Hospital District and board member of the CRD Housing and Trust Funds.
• Robert Lapham — Chief administrative officer of the CRD and the Capital Regional Hospital District.
• Colin Smith — A consulting engineer with expertise in management. He has in the past served as vice-chairman of the CRD Core Area Wastewater Treatment Commission.
