The Regional District of Nanaimo’s plan to repeal the Morningstar Creek Water Local Service Area has come to a screeching halt.
The district has voted at a previous committee of the whole meeting to go ahead with the move, citing the fact that the function was entirely dormant.
In a letter to the RDN, Michael Jessen, from the Arrowsmith Watersheds Coalition Society urged board members to reconsider the move.
“We are concerned that disbanding this municipal water service, inactive as it is, betrays the RDN’s perceived commitment to the principle of publicly-owned major water utilities,” Jessen said in his letter.
He noted that although the RDN had been asked to support a resolution from the Blue Communities program in March, which called for the district to recognize water as a human right, promote publicly financed, owned and operated water and wastewater services and ban the sale of bottled water in public facilities and at municipal events, but has yet to do so.
The board in March agreed to put the request on hold while they awaited a full staff report on the implications of such a move.
Until such time as the RDN deals with the request, Jessen asked that they set aside the motion.
The board agreed, voting to defer the vote.