Sewage committee chairwoman Denise Blackwell’s idea to put native art on the walls of the $1-billion McLoughlin Point sewage-treatment plant is not only akin to putting lipstick on a pig, but an incredible insult to native cultures.
Is this how we will honour and celebrate the heritage of First Nations? By using their artwork as a facade to cover up our ugliest infrastructure built on their ancestral lands? I am aghast at the very suggestion.
Tourism Victoria and the Chamber of Commerce should now be having second thoughts about the building of this monstrosity at the harbour entrance right across from the cruise-ship terminal. There can be no doubt that this plant is going to become a major landmark for tourists who, by the way, will be paying a lot more for goods and services in order to fund the sewage plant’s construction and operating costs.
Richard Atwell
Saanich
