Editor:
After 10 long years of debate and delay, we're finally upgrading our wastewater treatment facilities.
We've seen proposals that range from baking our excrement using fossil fuels to pumping our waste water uphill for treatment. Most past proposals would have dramatically increased our carbon footprint. We've had enough public consultation - let's do something!
The bidding for the new facility followed a disciplined and professional two-step request for proposals (RFP) approach. The RFP document is thorough, professional, detailed and fair. It called for the winning bid to meet strict environmental, emission and performance standards, provide an expandable, sustainable system and offer monetary performance guarantees. The five bids were evaluated against weighted criteria and the best bid was selected.
The agitation against the plant from the so called Coalition for Responsible Public Participation sounds like disgruntled partisan politics. Their focus is opposition to Veolia as a member of the consortium. Veolia, as an international business, is bound to have some contractual disputes in its history. In fact, most of the international agitation against Veolia is part of the boycott, divestment and sanctions campaign against Israel, based on Veolia's business dealings with the Israeli government. I strongly oppose that campaign.
Like many, I am unhappy with Sechelt council's propensity toward secrecy, in-camera meetings and opaque governance; however, in this case they seem to have gotten it right.
Keith Maxwell, Sechelt
