Victoria Mayor Lisa Helps鈥檚 hope that a letter from Ottawa would quash the sewage debate is likely a vain one, but the letter makes it clear that the federal government isn鈥檛 going to change its mind on sewage treatment for the capital region.
We should get on with it. Kicking this can down the road will only add to the cost and the headaches.
Helps received a letter last week from Jonathan Wilkinson, parliamentary secretary to the minister of environment and climate change, stating that the region鈥檚 wastewater systems are still well above the 鈥渉igh-risk鈥� designation threshold and require treatment by 2020.
鈥淭he total risk points allocated for the Macaulay Point and Clover Point wastewater systems were 126 and 112 respectively, which are significantly above the 70 points risk allocation and therefore require a deadline of Dec. 31, 2020,鈥� Wilkinson wrote.
The points system assesses the level of risk based on effluent quality and quantity and the water body that receives the sewage.
Helps said she was frustrated after reading an opinion piece by former federal environment minister and Victoria MP David Anderson in the Times 91原创 in March. Anderson has long opposed the plan for secondary sewage treatment, saying University of Victoria and University of British Columbia scientists 鈥渉ave concluded it will likely have no appreciable net health or environmental benefits.鈥� He said the sewage-treatment plan has not been subject to proper scientific and cost/benefit analyses.
鈥淭here is a high probability that the federal government would welcome a request to change the high-risk designation,鈥� Anderson wrote.
Wilkinson鈥檚 letter says otherwise. The government isn鈥檛 likely to change its mind.
Anderson also referred to comments by Justin Trudeau, then the Liberal leadership hopeful, when he came to town in 2012 to stump for the Liberal candidate in the byelection to replace MP Denise Savoie, who had resigned.
鈥淚 think there are enough questions about the choices being made,鈥� Trudeau said when asked about the sewage project, 鈥渢hat should make people realize it鈥檚 a push of ideology over actual scientific evidence.
鈥淭here is no net environmental benefit to this secondary sewage-treatment plant.鈥�
That was a comment on the campaign trail, not a prime ministerial statement. That was 2012, and this, to use a little Trudeauesque reasoning, is 2016. During an election campaign, politicians have a knack for saying what they think people want to hear. After the election, they have a tendency to forget the sweet nothings they whispered while wooing the voters.
Don鈥檛 hold your breath waiting for Trudeau to absolve the capital region of the federally imposed obligation to implement sewage treatment.
Anderson and the many who agree with him are not a bunch of wild-eyed conspiracy theorists. They are, for the most part, thoughtful, reasoning people who have based their arguments on conclusions by respected scientists.
But the federal government also has its scientists, and they have concluded from the measurements that Greater Victoria needs to proceed with sewage treatment. The provincial government, too, is adamant that the region must treat its sewage.
If the Capital Regional District were to dig in its heels and refuse, it would only complicate and delay the inevitable. Even if the risk designation were lowered, we would still have to build a treatment system by 2040. Further delays and wrangling will only add to the frightening costs.
The figure of $1 billion gets tossed around, but that鈥檚 probably an over-optimistic figure.
The letter from Ottawa won鈥檛 change the minds of those opposed to the sewage project, but it shows the futility of trying to get senior governments to reverse their positions. Let鈥檚 just get on with it and get it done.
