Nils Jensen is right in tune with the shopping season – between Black Friday and Boxing Day, he’s trying to entice voters with a huge discount on secondary sewage treatment
What was that corny song by Stompin Tom Connor – “Saving by spending money we don’t got”?
The whole subject of course suffers from hasty decision making, notably choosing a site before zoning was in place, and building an empire with a fancy misleading name.
Yet Jensen urges more haste.
What needs to be done is convince the federal and provincial governments that secondary treatment is not needed, following the position of the US government as illuminated by Brian Burchill and the opinion of former environment minister David Anderson as well as many scientists.
Discussions about delays may be a good time to push hard on stopping the waste of taxpayers’ earnings.
As for input from the public in an unscientific survey, that’s been heard many times – strong opposition. The NIMBY part of that won re-election for Esquimalt mayor Desjardins – what’s the likelihood of her reversing course, as Jensen wants?
Well, it is possible – Trudeau version 1 did it with price controls, but perhaps Trudeau version 2 can reverse the federal government’s incorrect position on its vague rules.
Keith Sketchley
Saanich