It will take more than a public-relations firm to make legions of opponents learn to love Greater Victoria’s sewage-treatment project.
Staff of the Capital Regional District have recommended that Acumen Communications Group be paid as much as $50,000 to come up with a communications plan and do other work on the $783-million project.
Acumen president Kim Van Bruggen has had some notable successes, including rebranding the Victoria Police as VicPD as part of a campaign that revamped its recruiting strategy and secured funding for 19 new officers. This job promises to be much harder.
Van Bruggen argues that opponents don’t have enough facts about the sewage project, but for most of the critics the only fact that matters is that the system is being built. They think the whole thing is unnecessary. Period.
The two sides in that debate have marshalled volumes of facts. Nothing short of divine revelation is going to change their minds.
Added to the anger of those opponents is Esquimalt’s outrage over the proposal to build a biosolids-processing plant on Viewfield Road in a residential and light-industrial area. Esquimalt is being saddled with both the main sewage plant and the biosolids facility — against its will.
After the communication disasters that have marked the project so far, hiring a firm now is just going to make the aggrieved residents think they are being played.
Van Bruggen correctly says that public consultation is important. It’s unlikely that Esquimalt would ever be happy with the biosolids plant, but discussion beforehand might have blunted some of the anger.
If the CRD thinks that new logos and slogans will fix this mess, Van Bruggen must convince sewage commissioners that they need changes that go much deeper.
