The B.C. government won’t get involved in a dispute between Esquimalt and the Capital Regional District over a sewage treatment plant at McLoughlin Point, says the environment minister.
Mary Polak rejected using her authority to force rezoning of McLoughlin Point that would allow the CRD to build a sewage facility on the site.
“I have no intention of intervening at this time,” Polak said.
“I realize this is controversial … and they are in debate as to whether they can resolve it, but I would encourage the parties to get back around the table and find a way that they can resolve this between themselves.”
Esquimalt council voted Monday to refuse the CRD’s rezoning application, which received little support at two public hearings. The CRD had offered more than $1 million in amenities, including road and bike path upgrades, electricity and firefighting improvements and a sewage education centre.
Instead, council passed its own rezoning bylaw, which would let the CRD build a plant at McLoughlin if additional amenities, such as a playground and barging of construction materials, as well as annual payments, were offered.
The CRD has said Esquimalt lacks authority to dictate such terms, and questioned whether the demands were legal.
The two sides appealed to the province to settle the stalemate.
“The idea of intervening in a matter that should be solved at a local level is not something we take very lightly,” Polak said. “So I’m encouraging them to be back at the table together, and try to find a resolution.”
Further complicating the dispute is the fact the CRD put the McLoughlin Point plant out for tender before receiving zoning approval from Esquimalt. Esquimalt Mayor Barb Desjardins said the CRD needs to pause and reconsider the project’s next steps. “To continue to try and barrel forward without the input of the community, letting the [tender], not listening to the community, was wrong.”
The McLoughlin plant is the first step in a planned $783-million regional sewage treatment system expected to be online in 2018. The B.C. government ordered sewage treatment for the region in 2006. The provincial and federal governments are each paying one-third of the budget.
The B.C. government would consider a delay of the project that would keep the provincial funding in place, said Coralee Oakes, Minister of Community, Sport and Cultural Development. “We are open to looking at that,” Oakes said. “They have to come to us, and we have to start that conversation.”
Esquimalt-Royal Roads NDP MLA Maurine Karagianis said the province could help mediate a resolution in a process that has been badly botched by the CRD.
“The whole process is such an abysmal failure from beginning to end, that at this point the province could actually play a pretty vital role if they want to come in and play peacemaker,” Karagianis said.
