Re: “Esquimalt should reconsider sewage issue,” letter, May 23.
Greater Victoria Chamber of Commerce CEO Bruce Carter’s claim that Esquimalt is liable for the hundreds of millions of dollars in “costs” is nonsense.
Mayor Barb Desjardins and Esquimalt council are respecting the public process that any developer must go through when applying for municipal re-zoning. If developers fail to satisfy the legitimate concerns of our elected officials — officials who are there to protect the public interest — then too bad. The developers don’t get to “sue” for sunk costs in making a non-qualifying application because they made bad business decisions.
Given that Carter and the 1,500 members of the chamber of commerce have identified municipal taxation as their No. 1 concern, it is odd that he has joined the stampede to spend a billion taxpayer dollars on a high-environmental-impact project for which no cost-benefit analysis has been done.
Rather than join the spending lobbyists, including the Capital Regional District and Seaterra, which are putting huge pressure on the mayor and council for this unjustified project, Carter should, for the sake of all Victoria business owners, be thanking and supporting Esquimalt for protecting the public purse from such reckless expenditures.
Paul Scrimger
Saanich
