An initiative proposed to establish a regional water system failed to draw the support of qathet Regional District directors.
Art the Thursday, December 12, committee of the whole meeting, Electoral Area B director Mark Gisborne brought forward a motion to regionalize the water supply.
Gisborne’s motion was that the committee recommend the regional board to direct staff to bring forth a report outlining the process of establishing a regional water system utilizing the infrastructure, debt and assets of a current municipal water system for the purposes of community safety, financial liability and democratic representation for a regional water system service that is no longer restricted by the City of Powell River boundary.
Gisborne said he has been keen on water systems and regional water systems since before he was elected as a regional director. He has been taking a look at which models work and because the regional district is moving forward with a feasibility study of supplying city water from the city limits to the south end of Centennial Drive, he thought it would be prudent for the board to explore all avenues for providing the service.
“As a regional district we provide regional services,” said Gisborne. “In other regional districts they follow two models. One is where the regional district controls the entire system and the other is where a municipality or private entity controls the water system and sells the water to the regional district.”
He said one example of the latter is Strathcona Regional District on Vancouver Island. There have been some significant challenges with the agreement, he added.
“As a result it has caused some significant tensions between the electoral area, the municipality and the regional district that has resulted in a lawsuit,” said Gisborne. “This motion has been brought forward to initiate this discussion to completely explore the idea of regionalizing the water system.”
Area A director and board chair Patrick Brabazon said he was approached by someone who thought the initiative was funny.
“It’s not funny,” said Brabazon. “This memo is whacko. But it’s beyond that. It’s insulting. First of all, it’s insulting to the City of Powell River. It implies, rather strongly, that they can’t manage their water system, that they are incompetent.”
Brabazon said Gisborne’s report is also insulting the regional board in that it purports to tell directors facts that aren’t true.
“There is no regional water standard,” said Brabazon.
Finally, it is insulting to the public, said Brabazon, because it implies the regional district is about to engage in some new massive service taking over the city’s water system.
“It’s an attack on the relationship the [regional] board has established with mayor and council of the City of Powell River over several years,” said Brabazon. “We have a good relationship right now. This is driving an arrow right through the heart of it. This memo is an embarrassment and I will be voting no. This one should die.”
City director George Doubt said he would also be voting against the motion. He said there are a number of different ways to address the provision of water. He said he is not willing to believe the statement that the standard of regional district water is better than that of city water.
Doubt said what has occurred is the regional district is doing a study to see if connecting to city water would provide potable water to a limited number of homes in the regional district.
Doubt said Gisborne’s report made a statement that this process is long and will most likely require significant grant funding in order to bring the city’s water system up to regional district standards.
“What about regional district standards? I’m not aware of any regional districts that have standards for potable water,” said Doubt. “The province of British Columbia does. For information, the City of Powell River is required to meet the requirements and does meet the requirements for drinking water.”
Gisborne said his mention of regional district standards for water was not to imply the city water did not meet provincial water standards. He said his understanding was that users of the Myrtle Pond system were required to be metered.
“That is the only standard I am implying here,” he said. “My main source of concern though, is if the regional district is providing water outside the city limits, based on the feasibility study that is being done, my concern is that the electoral area residents will be charged a different rate than those inside the municipality.”
Gisborne said the proposal is not to be perceived in any way as an insult to the municipality.
“This could not move forward without the approval of municipal council,” said Gisborne. “This is something that would require further collaboration between the regional district and the municipality. It cannot work unless everyone is on the same page and working together.
“I did not put this forward to insult the municipality or any member of this board. I put this forward to simply start the conversation about regionalization of services.”
Area E director Andrew Fall made a motion to postpone Gisborne’s motion until after the feasibility study on connecting Area B residents to the city water supply. Brabazon said postponing is not going to overcome the damage the memo has done.
“It’s insulting to the city, it’s insulting to the board and it’s insulting to the public,” said Brabazon. “This should be defeated tonight.”
The motion to postpone was defeated.
The board then defeated Gisborne’s motion regarding the establishment of a regional water system.
