Oak Bay Mayor Nils Jensen is stepping down from his role as chairman of the Capital Regional District’s sewage committee, the same day it announced securing a one-year extension on a federal funding offer.
Jensen has appointed Victoria Mayor Lisa Helps as his successor on the core-area liquid-waste management committee.
“I think I bring a fresh perspective to the table,” Helps said. “What we need is a collaborative focus and solution, so that the plan we come up with is something that not only our residents can live with, but they can embrace.”
Helps was one of four new faces to join the sewage committee in December. Her appointment as chairwoman takes effect May 13.
Jensen appointed himself chairman of the sewage committee soon after he was elected chairman of the CRD board of directors in December.
He did not feel any pressure to leave the position, he said, but chose to do so after a one-year extension on an offer of $83.4 million from PPP Canada for the project was secured. The agreement was announced Wednesday and means the CRD has until March 2016 to submit a detailed treatment plan.
“My original step to appoint myself to the subcommittee was highly unusual, I realized that,” he said.
“I had it in my mind that I wanted to stabilize the situation to clarify where we stood, to secure loans and to get the train back on the track. Having done that, I was quite satisfied we could go back to the traditional way of doing things.”
Jensen will continue as a regular member of the committee, and as chairman of the CRD board.
He said Helps’s greatest challenge will be sticking to the aggressive timeline proposed, including securing a site for treatment. “It’s going to take some negotiating and lots of discussion to move forward and find success,” he said.
Helps is also chairwoman of the eastside wastewater treatment and resource recovery committee, which is exploring treatment options for Victoria, Oak Bay and Saanich.
A parallel subcommittee called Westside Solutions is doing the same for View Royal, Colwood, Langford, Esquimalt and the Songhees First Nation. But Helps emphasized that the subcommittees are co-operative.
“There’s no danger of eastside and westside going off in separate directions, because we’re purposefully creating a process that is aligned,” she said.
Esquimalt Mayor Barb Desjardins, who is co-chairwoman of Westside Solutions, said Helps is a good choice to chair the sewage committee. “I’m fully supportive. She is going to be able to help move this process forward.”
Jensen has done a good job, but Desjardins said he was spread thin. “Nils was in a position where I was concerned he may have taken on too much. Also, his attendance in the last term wasn’t significant.”
Westside Solutions also announced Wednesday that it has identified 18 potential treatment sites and believes tertiary treatment is a possibility.
A report is being drafted based on the subcommittee’s first round of public engagement and the responses to its call for technical information.
