‘Moving too fast” are not words anyone would expect to be applied to sewage treatment in Greater Victoria. The project has moved at glacial speed, when it has moved at all, for too many years.
Now that plans are finally progressing, nothing should be allowed to stall the project again.
The independent sewage-treatment project board aims to break ground for the McLoughlin Point plant in February, but Esquimalt Mayor Barb Desjardins says that timetable is “incredibly aggressive,” and worries that her municipal staff will be overloaded.
Given her fierce opposition to the McLoughlin Point plan in the past, she will likely be accused of trying to put up another roadblock. But that would be unfair. Her concerns are legitimate. It’s a massive project, the largest Esquimalt has ever had to deal with. Municipal staff can scarcely be expected to handle this as a routine development application.
Nevertheless, it’s not something suddenly plucked out of the air. It’s the same plan, with some tweaks and alterations, that was about to be put into motion two years ago, but which was derailed when Esquimalt rejected an application to alter the zoning for the facility to accommodate a slightly larger footprint.
That sent the CRD and municipalities on a quest for different options, with little progress. In May, with a federal funding deadline approaching, Community Minister Peter Fassbender stepped in, took the process out of the hands of politicians and turned it over to an expert panel called the Core Area Waste Water Treatment Project Board.
Unfettered by political considerations, regional silos and competing municipal interests, the panel set to work with focus and purpose, achieving its objective in less than six months and announcing the altered McLoughlin plan in September.
It’s no coincidence that the panel’s recommendation was almost identical to the previous plan, one that was formed from years of studies, design and calculations done by people who knew what they were doing. Although panel chairwoman Jane Bird said the recommended plan is not the same proposal that was rejected by Esquimalt, it is built on the original plan.
Therefore, it should contain few surprises. The sewage panel should be able to highlight in a page or two what is different about the current plan, and help Esquimalt officials accommodate those changes.
What we don’t need are more studies — they would only reach the same conclusions.
What we don’t need are more public hearings. That doesn’t mean the project should proceed in secret — the public should be kept aware of progress — but ample opportunity has been given for input.
What we don’t need are more roadblocks. The plan meets Esquimalt’s zoning and design requirements, says the expert panel, meaning Esquimalt council would not be able to block the plant even if it wanted to.
That doesn’t mean Esquimalt officials should not watch diligently over the municipality’s interests. But they should take advantage of the panel’s offer of resources and consultants, as well as payment of legal fees concerning the application.
Because of past delays, there is a certain urgency about the sewage project, but it is not rocketing ahead with undue haste. It is finally gaining momentum, and that momentum should not be lost.
