Editor:
Re: “Siegers supports another water-meter AAP,” May 24.
Well, here we go again! Once more we find ourselves facing a potential AAP vote (Alternative Approval Process) on the subject of financing water meters in Sechelt. This time it is proposed that the Big Bad Wolf (long-term debt) will be dressed up to look like a sheep by combining the water-meter issue with drilling wells. Drilling wells is a desirable and cost-effective move. Meters are not.
Getting “a complete picture of the water usage on the Sunshine Coast” does not require $6.5 million worth of water meters financed over 20 years. The SCRD should already know the average family water consumption from existing meter installations. We do not need even more meters to confirm that we run short of water during the summer months. More meters will not produce more water, but drilling wells will. Let’s spend the money there. That makes sense. The leak detection argument for water meters is also not valid as there are much cheaper ways of accomplishing the same thing without spending $6.5 million.
If the SCRD board wants to continue down this water-meter path and also wants the public to buy into this idea, then include the following statement in the language of the AAP vote: “These projects will proceed only when grant financing is confirmed.” We have all paid taxes that go toward such things, so let’s not pay twice.
The ethics of combining two separate items on a single vote in order to pass an already rejected initiative have a particular odour that does not go with good governance. The problem of an ever-increasing long-term debt (The Big Bad Wolf) is more important than water meters. That wolf can eat you alive if ignored. Someone convince me that I am wrong.
Geoff Bedford, Sechelt
