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AWS waffling a hand grenade: Burger

Parksville needs a decision, says mayor
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Parksville’s acting mayor Chris Burgersays the city is frustrated with mayor Teunis Westbroek and the Town of Qualicum Beach’s stance — or lack of it — on the Arrowsmith Water Service agreement.

Qualicum Beach Town council’s recent waffling on their level of involvement in the Arrowsmith Water Service was like “throwing a hand-grenade at the other partners,” according to acting Parksville mayor Chris Burger.

“The city is already dependent on that river, this issue speaks directly to our ability to continue functioning,” he said of the early work on a new Englishman River intake and water treatment facility.

Qualicum Beach stirred things up by suggesting it might try to sell half of its share in the water service, a joint venture started in 1996 by Parksville, Qualicum Beach and the Regional District of Nanaimo.

“The water treatment is required by VIHA (the Vancouver Island Health Authority), it’s not even about growth and capacity, which are things that we’ll still be addressing,” Burger said.

“2016 might seem like a long way off, but it’s not,” he said of ongoing planning and conceptual work for the deadline to treat all municipal water. “We have a tremendous amount of work to do in a very short time and we’re already behind schedule.”

Burger’s critique came as a surprise to Qualicum Beach mayor Teunis Westbroek.

“It’s ironic, because Chris was on [Qualicum Beach] council in 1996 and we’d had a vote in November of 1995 on the Arrowsmith dam,” he said. “I’m sure he remembers we didn’t have the support of Qualicum Beach to proceed with a major capital program.”

Despite the failure of the AWS referendum, he said, Qualicum Beach went ahead with their participation in the program, funding their share through internal funding.

“Now we are coming up to the big numbers,” Westbroek said. 

“I think, and most of council agrees with me, we have to come to the public, put all our cards on the table, and say this is our dilemma. There was a referendum that failed and we are still connected to the agreement.”

The current governance agreement was supposed to expire March 31 but was extended to June 30 to work out the latest complications and Parksville is gong to insist on a new “fair vote process,” Burger said.

Each of the three partners currently has an equal third vote and essentially a veto power, despite Parksville operating the system and owning 63.9 per cent.

The RDN owns 22.4 per cent and while Qualicum Beach currently owns 13.7 per cent, there was talk about reducing their share to six per cent.

“Now we’re hearing things about Qualicum Beach holding a referendum in November — we don’t have time to wait for that. 

“It’s really frustrating that Qualicum Beach with the smallest share can effectively hold up the other partners,” Burger said, explaining they intend to create a system along the lines of Parksville getting three out of six votes. 

He stressed there will have to be a public referendum on borrowing money for the project either way — with the combine total cost estimated in the $50 million range — but they need a governance system that allows them to continue with the preliminary planning and feasibility studies.

Westbroek said he wants the public to get all the information about the AWS, including costs, benefits and alternatives, prior to taking part in a possible referendum on the issue.

“This is the single most important decision this council and Parksville council has to make,” he said. “We may never use that water, but we need to plan ahead – maybe not for us but for future generations.”

A report on the first phase is due by the end of April that will answer many questions, Burger said, and bring up many new ones.

“We need more design work before we have the details to take to the public, we have to know our needs before we can go to the public and Qualicum Beach has been holding up that process.”

“We’ve already been in discussions with federal and provincial representatives about grants, but these are based on estimates only, we need the detailed design work to go ahead.”

“We respect Qualicum Beach’s right to decide their level of involvement and they can pursue other options on their own, but we already have an established water license, which was very difficult to get, there’s already a significant investment and we have to go forward on this from a position of stability.”

“The mixed messages we’re getting are complicating an already complicated situation. We simply can’t continue to wait for Qualicum Beach to make up their mind.”

— with files from Neil Horner