Editor:
Phase 3 of the SCRD’s water meter project did not qualify for provincial funding this year. This does not mean it won’t qualify next year, or the year after. Chances are it could. Regardless, the SCRD board of directors has seen fit to continue with Phase 3 metering anyway, apparently with little regard to cost; they want to borrow $6 million, repayable over 20 years.
I am not arguing for or against metering here. Sure, the prompt installation of meters could help identify more leaks. However, that will only buy us a short amount of time and does nothing to resolve our biggest problem: securing an additional or alternative water source(s). That is what our borrowing capacity, and the capacity of our taxpayers to pay, must be reserved for.
Fortunately, there is a way we can stop this borrowing and force the SCRD to either hold a referendum to obtain voter approval, or to rethink their priorities. Given the election this October, a referendum would be easy to organize. In order for this to happen, the SCRD must receive enough signed forms before July 24 to halt the Alternative Approval Process. Less than 1,957 signed forms and the borrowing will go through.
I urge your readers and, by extension, all Sunshine Coast voters, to force the SCRD to reconsider this misguided multi-million-dollar loan. Forms can be picked up at the SCRD office or downloaded from their website: scrd.ca/Alternative-Approval-Process.
Steve Drinkwater, Sechelt
