Editor:
“Hello, non-elected Victoria bureaucrat. This is the Sunshine Coast Regional District, the SCRD, as we/us are referred to. Yes, we are accessed by BC Ferries with intermittent sailings, but no we are not an island. Our concern is lack of water. Yes, I know we are in a rainforest every six months, but we need to dig a well to get us through the dry summers. A year and a half to three years you say? Of course, we/us understand regulations and procedures. We/us exist by that process. We do have a short-term water solution. Water meters will be able to establish a base use per resident per household. Ultimately, four litres of water and one flush per day, but that is a few years off as we/us are running behind with proposed installation. Excess use over the base can then be charged, similar to carbon tax… We can blame “climate change.” Thanks for your time and we/us look forward to your permission to dig a well, sometime over the next three years.”
Not acceptable. It’s time to “get some…” Residents should not have to wait years for any action. If the SCRD and Sechelt councillors will not be aggressively proactive, get out of the way. Sechelt has elected a mayor as a person of action and results. Listen, and solve the “how” rather than deferring to political obstacles. Now is the time to start a long-term solution while actioning the short-term needs for more water.
P.S.: The feds and the provincial governments established a $310 million fund in March 2017 for clean water and water upgrade projects in B.C. Kelowna has since received $61.9 million over three payments, the most recent being $6 million June 27, 2023. Sechelt is in a desperate position for new water. There is a saying that “the squeaky wheel gets…” Apparently the SCRD and our MLA have not “squeaked” enough. I guess we are waiting for a few more studies.
Bud Hoffman, Sechelt
