About $400,000 was spent on the Chapman drawdown project and now that the province has rejected it, some Sunshine Coast Regional District (SCRD) directors think the SCRD should be reimbursed by the B.C. government.
At last week’s infrastructure committee meeting, directors had their first crack at reviewing the decision by Environment Minister George Heyman to reject the SCRD’s proposal to adjust the boundaries of Tetrahedron Provincial Park to access additional water from Chapman Lake to ease critical water shortages.
“We’ve just flushed $400,000 down the drain,” Sechelt director Tom Lamb told the committee. “I don’t know if somebody has to be accountable somewhere down the road. It’s a lot of money out of taxpayers’ pockets.”
The $400,000 cost for completed work on the project includes an environmental assessment, design, engineering and approvals.
The staff report forming the basis of the debate said in 2017 the “SCRD was informed that BC Parks’ initial interpretation of the BC Parks Act was incorrect.” As a result, a park boundary amendment would be required before the province could issue provincial authorizations for the project, kicking off a public process that ultimately led to Heyman’s decision not to move ahead. His letter cited public opposition and the SCRD’s need to reduce its dependence on the Chapman water system.
Following the Feb. 7 announcement, SCRD chief administrative officer Janette Loveys told Coast Reporter that the money the SCRD spent was “at the direction of the province.”
“We have been told by the province – it’s in correspondence – to spend more money and the board has done those things, so we are certainly going to have to reconcile the financial side of the house,” said Loveys, who last month left the SCRD to take a new job in Ontario.
At last week’s infrastructure meeting, Howe Sound director Mark Hiltz called those expenses sunk costs, while Roberts Creek director Andreas Tize said the board should seek compensation “because there was an error committed there.”
Sechelt director Darnelda Siegers agreed with Lamb that the SCRD might have been misled, and said while the completed work could still be useful to the SCRD, reports would have to be updated, which would cost more, and suggested they do “request some money back.”
Chair and Halfmoon Bay director Lori Pratt acknowledged a “disconnect” between the ministry and the board. In a conversation with MLA Nicholas Simons shortly after the ministry’s decision, she said, he told her they should do “further advocacy.”
“Advocacy” for Area A director Leonard Lee meant trying again. “I think we should advocate for [Heyman] to revisit the decision based on new information and push him to take that lake out of the park so we can get on with having some water,” Lee said.
Directors ultimately passed a motion from Roberts Creek director Andreas Tize to request the ministry explain the criteria used to reject the boundary adjustment proposal.
Tize attempted another motion – that “we also ask for our money back … considering we were led down the path for two years.”
The motion failed after some debate, with Tize eventually agreeing with other directors, such as Pratt, that the call for compensation was premature.
Pratt reminded directors that “there was also will around the board at that time to follow up on that project. I don’t want to put all of this at the feet of the ministry. I believe the board needs to accept some responsibility around this as well.”
