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Rebate doesn’t deliver

Letters

Editor:

The SCRD rainwater harvesting rebate program is more about making the SCRD look good than actually benefiting those in the community who have taken the lead.

My husband and I recently started a garage reno and with all the talk of water restrictions over the past two years since we moved here, we thought we would incorporate a rainwater catchment system into our plans. So, silly us, we went ahead and purchased the cistern and pump, paid trucking, excavated the sizable hole, paid an excavator, ran the piping, laid drainage aggregate around the cistern, paid for labour and, in short, installed the system to specifications.

Now, if you think that cost us $500 or anywhere near it, you’d be sorely mistaken. But not as sore as we were when we learned we don’t qualify for the rebate because we’d already purchased the cistern. The system isn’t functioning yet, as we quite literally just set it up and don’t have a garage yet upon which to attach the downspouts. We definitely should have held up our entire renovation and proper installation of a lot drainage system, with rock and sedimentation pit, while losing thousands of dollars daily, in favour of accommodating an arbitrary and unreasonable process by the SCRD. Of greater benefit to SCRD residents would be a rebate on our annual utility bill for those who have properly installed and incurred the greater expense of a water harvesting system. That could, in part, offset the apparently inevitable wastewater facility rate hikes.

While we’re at it, we’d also like a food waste composter rebate, and a fuel rebate for running our recyclables up to Gibsons Recycling. Maybe the SCRD would like us to also run our garbage down to Rabanco, Wash., for incineration, just to save them a few bucks ahead of the landfill closing? After all, we are clearly a self-servicing community.

Maura Laverty, Langdale