It doesn’t take an MBA to see stakeholder advisory committee (SAC) committee is entering a fixed horse race, assuring that only a rehashing of Greater Vernon Water projects will be on the table – the projects that the public refused to fund during the referendum.
The public is outraged area water rates are almost three times the rate of Kelowna users.
Under the bureaucrat-penned terms of reference, SAC will review GVW’s hastily-scribed list of assumptions.
This means the public at large will not be allowed to submit letters to the SAC group.
How’s that for betraying the public which was instrumental in demanding change.
The grassroots group, Citizens for Changes to the Master Water Plan, has touched the public pulse with its clearly-understood May presentation at the Schubert Centre.
The public wants Okanagan Lake as a water source, as Kelowna has, with no demand by IHA for filtration, because Okanagan Lake is a deep repository of glacial gravels.
In all of these years, GVW bureaucrats haven’t got around to protecting the Duteau slough (an apt public description), complaining about vandalism and mud-boggers.
Why hasn’t IHA protected the Duteau source? Water reservoirs on the Lower Mainland are closed to the public and mostly fenced.
We are misguided if we believe politicians are in charge.
Barb Mitchell
Coldstream
