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Residents in Sooke are concerned about the imminent tax hikes to pay for the new sewer system. |
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Calendar of Events & special Dates |
Sewer problems don't surprise former News Mirror Editor Letter by Mitch Moneo to the Sooke News Mirror March 6, 2002 I have to admit I was not surprised upon reading that the District of Sooke is not going to get the $16 milllion Canada/B.C. infrastructure grant. When I first learned of the districtís sewerage intitiative, and that an engineering consultant was being retained, I called the provincial environment ministry and queried a ministry official about the process of bringing sewerage infrastructure to a small town. The official I spoke with told me it was strongly advisable that the district embark on a Liquid Waste Management Plan. He told me that the plan would not only assist the municipality in determining its needs and help it select the appropriate components for the system and the area it should service, but more important it would create a mechanism for public involvement. Upon the planís completion, there would be no need for a referendum because the plan and its conclusions and recommendations would be garnered from public consensus. The official acknowledged that a Liquid Waste Management plan took time, three to five years to complete, but he stressed that time after time he encountered municipalities that would charge ahead without one only to discover they couldnít garner public consent or get grant funding or both and after spending considerable time and money, would have to go back to step one and initiate the Waste Management Plan. As the former editor of the Sooke News Mirror I duly reported my findings. I also spoke with Sookeís mayor who told me that he realized the benefits of a Liquid Waste Management Plan, but that the district wouldnít be able to meet the deadline for the $16 million infrastructure grant if it were to embark on the plan. Well, not surprisingly, the ministry officialís sage advise has come to pass. The District of Sooke has discovered it will not get a grant for its project, and it wasted a considerable amount of time and money in the process. What confounds me is why it takes a municipal government, with a well-paid staff, about two years and $100,000 to learn what it took a community newspaper editor to learn in one telephone conversation. |
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