Editor:
Regarding last week’s letter from SCRD director Lori Pratt defending the SCRD’s push to install water meters in the District of Sechelt (“Water meters stop water leaks”), I beg to differ with her statement that “the issue at hand here is not the progress on water supply.” With all due respect, the issue at hand is precisely about the SCRD’s progress on the water supply, or lack thereof.
Director Pratt touted several new water projects, but the truth is that none of the SCRD’s water projects have, to date, increased our water supply by a single drop; they remain in various stages of planning and development, with most having projected completion dates many years from now. Furthermore, the current SCRD board has increased water restrictions (with a few exceptions) even beyond the unreasonable measures imposed by their predecessors. And now they want residents to pay for more water meters, which were already rejected by electors during the last Alternative Approval Process (AAP) in 2018.
Most people understand that, because the SCRD so badly neglected our water system for decades, it’s going to take time and a lot of money to get it up to acceptable standards. The real issue is how we choose to spend that money. On this point, the message from residents and voters has been consistently clear: increase the actual water supply, not efforts to monitor, restrict, and monetize water use. To that end, I’ll be voting against the AAP that would allow the SCRD to borrow $7.25 million to install water meters in the District of Sechelt, and I would strongly encourage others to do the same. This taxpayer money would be much better spent on expediting current water projects aimed at increasing supply (wells, water treatment, etc.) and developing similar projects in the future.
MJ Lord, Sechelt
