Editor:
I am a resident of Sechelt and am outraged over the SCRD’s failure to deliver the water that we as “hostage customers” pay for.
For each new subdivided residential lot in Sechelt they collect $1,650 as well as another $1,650 when a building permit is taken out for a new home on that lot. These amounts are remitted to the SCRD as a development cost charge for water. In Sechelt we pay the SCRD a parcel tax which appears on our property tax each year and in addition we are charged a flat rate for our water service. Quite frankly having paid almost $8,000 to the SCRD for water over the past 10 years, I am not interested in showering once a week, flushing the toilet twice a day, or saving grey water to pour on my plants. I want the water that I am paying for. If the SCRD was a utility company elsewhere, they would be having their contract cancelled and likely be sued for non-performance.
So what is the SCRD’s plan to ensure this doesn’t happen again? Well, they are going to install meters for which they are going to charge us $36 per year, then $246 per annum even if we don’t use a drop of water plus the current parcel tax. Wow, that is some kind of a plan for a resource that is free and renewable.
The news of our water plight has been a top story of all major media outlets, and who knows what impact this has had on our property values? The SCRD’s gross mismanagement is costing farmers their crops, nursery people their stock and people their jobs. Many of us have invested tens of thousands of dollars in our landscaping to enhance our homes and neighbourhoods and are now watching shrubs that are an integral part of our landscaping die. Still others have many hundreds of dollars invested in plants and vegetables that are likely going to perish. Am I angry? You bet I am!
Frank May, Sechelt
