The impasse over sewage treatment has some people asking whether our region can continue to be governed by multiple municipalities and a weak regional government. If the test for a local government is that it can carry out a legal requirement imposed, under pain of fines, by provincial and federal regulators, then our regional government system is in danger of failing.
By now, it must be clear to everyone that there will never be unanimous agreement on a sewage treatment system for Victoria. Many argue that ocean disposal is satisfactory and treatment is unnecessary, while others think the system should go well beyond that required by regulations. Some think a decentralized system with multiple plants would be cheaper than the current plan. As specific sites for facilities are identified, neighbours invariably express concerns.
Despite differences of view, the Capital Regional District board has made a decision. After years of study, our staff and consultants have produced a plan that economically meets regulatory requirements, takes advantage of provincial and federal financial aid, and as much as possible limits impacts on the neighbourhoods that will host sites. A 2009 engineering study showed that a single central plant for wastewater treatment is the cheapest approach. Unless regulators allow Victoria to dump its sewage in the ocean indefinitely, we will never have a more affordable option.
The problem now is that the CRD board cannot make zoning changes over municipal objections. Esquimalt’s unwillingness to rezone a site has effectively blocked the plan, unless the provincial government overrides the Esquimalt zoning. Any other cost-effective site is virtually certain to produce a similar stalemate.
No desirable alternatives remain to the CRD, but returning the responsibility for sewage treatment to the municipal governments, requiring each to build its own plant and find its own outfall, will dramatically increase taxpayer costs.
The obvious political solution to the impasse is amalgamation of the core area. Making a decision would be no easier, but councillors of the new Greater Victoria would have the power to make a decision and their responsibility would be clear.
Alternatively, the province could mandate a stronger regional government. Elsewhere, regional facilities are often provided by regional or county governments made up of directly elected members, not municipal councillors. Differences of view between the region and the municipalities are routine and expected, and the powers of each level to carry out its responsibilities are clearly defined.
The B.C. model, with councillors/directors filling dual roles, has often worked well. The CRD has successfully provided parks, water, wastewater collection and a landfill.Yet many wish for a stronger regional voice in land use and transportation planning, and often directors are torn between local and regional interests, as in 2010 when the board abandoned midway the process of providing a kitchen-scraps collection and processing system.
(Oddly, some blame the CRD for the problems of this program, when it would be more accurate to blame the unwillingness of municipal directors to entrust control of the program to the CRD.)
There are differences of view about the appropriate role of regional government, but it seems hard to dispute that where it has responsibility, it also needs authority. If the present project fails for lack of a site, it will be not because of an unwillingness of the board to make hard decisions, but because it does not have the powers it needs to carry out the tasks it has been given.
Geoff Young is a Victoria city councillor, CRD director and former CRD board chairman. He chairs the CRD committee charged with wastewater management for the core municipalities.
