Staff will be applying for a grant that could pay for up to 73 per cent of the $5-million Chapman Lake Supply Expansion Project after all, following a rare request by Sunshine Coast Regional District (SCRD) board chair Bruce Milne to reconsider a motion the board had already voted on.
The funding opportunity comes from a bilateral agreement between the governments of Canada and B.C. that will see $243 million spent on green infrastructure projects specifically related to water treatment and capacity or to soil and air pollution management.
Originally, directors voted in favour of applying for the grant to fund the Chapman project during a committee meeting on June 28, but that outcome was reversed at that afternoon’s board meeting because votes were weighted.
At the July 12 board meeting, Milne acknowledged the unexpected twist when re-introducing the motion. He said there was “perhaps some unintended confusion as we went from the committee meeting in the morning in which there is one person, one vote, to the board meeting in the afternoon, which was a weighted vote of participants only.” Milne, who chaired the June 28 board meeting, appeared surprised at the outcome and explained at the July 12 meeting, “Because it was brought forward very quickly from the morning, it wasn’t spelled out on my agenda.”
During the July 12 discussion, Milne asked whether they could try applying to fund Phase 3 of the universal water meter installation project instead, but staff said they checked with the province and it recommended forgoing that option in favour of the Chapman project, since it fits the grant’s eligibility requirements. The water meter installation project is expected to cost up to $6 million.
Roberts Creek director Mark Lebbell “commended the judgment of the chair” to bring the motion back for another vote, noting that the discussion around applying should be a financial one rather than a policy one. “By voting against these recommendations, directors are essentially saying they are willing to gamble with $3.6 million potentially of taxpayer funds,” he said, adding, “A $1.4-million choice looks a lot better than a $5-million choice.”
Before the vote was made for a third and final time, Milne stated his long-held position that the Chapman project will likely fail, before acknowledging that constituents wouldn’t want directors to “forgo potential grants if it did go forward.”
“When the vote comes, I will be abstaining, which I think you all recognize is a vote in favour of the motion,” Milne said. The July 12 vote saw only Elphinstone director Lorne Lewis and Sechelt director Doug Wright oppose the motion and so it passed.
The deadline for the grant application is Aug. 29 with announcements slated for the spring of 2019.
