Business Owners Call for Positive Resolution

Letter from business owners to quash Seaterra will be item 6 on Wednesday's CALWMC meeting. Here a link to a copy of the letter including signatures of business owners: http://bit.ly/1JWmRFe

Capital Region District
625 Fisgard Street
Victoria B.C. V8W 1R7
Attention: Lisa Helps, CALWMC Chair
Re: Seaterra and CRD Issues

Dear Chair Helps,

We, the undersigned, are a group of concerned business owners from the Capital Region District. The reason for our concern is both past and recent developments regarding the Seaterra program and CRD staff.

In its relatively short history, the name Seaterra has already become synonymous with the high cost of bypassing meaningful public consultation. The project’s track record of questionable expenditures, ill advised land acquisitions and in camera decisions is already well documented. Thankfully the program was paused last year. However, in the intervening months, both Seaterra management and CRD staff have seemed unable to adapt to the region’s new direction regarding sewage treatment.

As recently as the last Core Area meeting (April 8), directors found out that the Seaterra Commission was still meeting, via conference call, without reporting minutes and that the winning bid on the McLoughlin RFP was being extended without the committee’s input. At this point, it would seem management is either unaware of or unwilling to meet the mandated level of transparency. Regardless of the project’s status, this kind of backroom operating is just simply no longer acceptable.

Far more worrisome is the apparent cross-pollination between the project, the contracted engineering consultant and CRD staff. What has been a brewing problem within the CRD for years has finally boiled over into a palpable distrust. Suspicions that staff and consultants are attempting to steer the process towards a predetermined outcome threaten to undermine both the efforts of the Select Committees and the integrity of the CRD itself. The CALWMC’s refusal to accept a staff report on February 18th serves as a public confirmation of the conflict.

In the six months since the municipal election, itself a de facto referendum on Seaterra, considerable progress has been made in regards to creating an open and accountable process through the Select Committees. However, if a majority of CALWMC directors feel there has been any attempt by CRD staff or project management to interfere with or obfuscate the process currently underway, further action must be taken. It is certainly understandable to want to spare real people the embarrassment that can come with accountability, but any further accommodation would surely risk undoing the gains made by voters on November 15th.

As a group of business owners with a considerable stake in sewage treatment, we’d like to express our support for any democratic means necessary, including a nonconfidence vote, to bring a positive resolution to this situation. With tens of millions in unrecoverable costs, the Seaterra Program has already left an expensive and embarrassing legacy for the region’s taxpayers. We know that the CALWMC is far from
unanimous in its feelings towards the project and the Select Committees. However, we encourage the new chair and the progressive voices within to bring a definitive end to Seaterra and any related dysfunction within the CRD.

Yours Sincerely,
signatures attached

CC: Mayor Nils Jensen, CRD Board Chair
All CALWMC Directors and Alternates

As well a second letter is on the May 13th agenda from another business owner.  To read the full letter find it in the CALWMC agenda or http://bit.ly/1IZfwDg