Victoria, Oak Bay and Saanich have joined to form an Eastside Sewage Committee to search for sites and possible solutions for sewage treatment for these municipalities.
One of the major criteria the committee established was that a potential sewage-treatment site could not be near single-family homes in residential areas.
It seems to be a reasonable criterion that managed to eliminate all but one proposed site in Oak Bay.
Despite chairing the Eastside Sewage Committee, rookie Victoria Mayor Lisa Helps did not think it necessary to protect her citizens by getting similar criteria for people who live in townhouses, condominiums, duplexes, four-plexes, apartments, social housing or homes with suites. One would think that people in mixed residential are second-class citizens compared to the homeowners of Oak Bay and elsewhere.
Victoria is now guaranteed at least one sewage-treatment plant. An Ogden Point/coast guard plant would be within a three-minute walk of more than 1,000 residents, hundreds of thousands of arriving and visiting tourists, and tens of thousands of Greater Victoria residents who use the area regularly.
Very astute negotiation on behalf of your citizens, Mayor Helps. Not.
Darvin Heinemann
Victoria
