Editor:
Mayor Henderson states the Sunshine Coast is blessed with natural water storage, Chapman Lake, and that’s true. Annual average rain on the Coast is 40 inches per year. For nine months a year, we watch rain draining into the ocean. It’s free, available and anyone who’s lived here for 30 years knows it’s reliable. We pay for water but it’s free. We pray for rain during fabulous summer months instead of enjoying the rain-free, hot weather. This is nonsense.
In 2018, the proposed expansion project was to deepen the channel from the lake to the creek by five metres by replacing or upgrading the existing dam and installing a large diameter gravity-fed pipe. This was denied by the provincial NDP.
Our NDP MLA Mr. Simons has been silent. Mr. Heymen, the NDP environment minister asked us to find another way. The siphons work but NDP wants them removed, at a $250,000 expense to taxpayers, then replaced if needed at more expense. Nobody believes they won’t be needed in the future so why remove them? More nonsense.
When the province designated the land protected, provisions for the drinking water supply were written into the agreement.
Are any SCRD or council members lobbying the province for the only fix we deserve: reliable water storage and delivery?
All this windfall tax money Mr. Eby is doling out for your vote is negligible if we have to endure more water restrictions when we see so much squandered into the ocean. That budget surplus gift from David Eby is your money and should be used to help fund fixing our water problem.
What are our elected officials for, if not to fight for a permanent solution to the single most important issue we face? Stop voting for anyone standing in the way or worse, blocking progress for our right to have a safe reliable supply of water. The status quo is woefully lacking.
Sincerely,
Marg Atherton, Sechelt
