Qualicum Beach council should extend the current Arrowsmith Water Service agreement past the next municipal election, says one councillor.
Between now and then, said Coun. Mary Brouilette, the community should be involved in an intensive consultation process on the issue.
At their March meeting, council voted 3-1 to reduce their share of the AWS water service from 13 per cent to 6.7 per cent. However, they also agreed to extend the current agreement until June, as it expired at the end of March.
“Because we are coming up to an election in November, I would like to see the extension go past November because the next council has to live with the delivery of this, whatever it is,” she said. “It’s not like we are being asked for money tomorrow, because we’re not.”
She said the water service issue is a complicated one and, while she knows any decisions are council’s to make, the citizens of the community need to know exactly what the issues are.
To this end, she said, the town should organize some type of public forum.
“This a huge, huge subject and we don’t have answers for many things. They bandy about $50 million [for AWS], but nobody knows. There are legitimate reasons to look at the AWS and there are legitimate reasons to continue to look a little closer at the Little Qualicum and storage in Cameron Lake, but the public needs to know what the options are.”
She noted while Cameron Lake and the Little Qualicum is closer to Qualicum Beach than the Englishman River, tapping into them would be neither free, nor certain.
“We can say our portion might be whatever to take part in the regional system, but it’s going to be at least $6 million to go to the Little Qualicum and it’s very unlikely we would get government grants. The province would like us to act regionally, so if there is money available to knock down this $50 million over 15 years, that’s where the province is going to put their money. They are not likely to give it to Qualicum Beach for going it alone.”
