In my opinion the entire MWP should be scrutinized. Neither staff nor the consultants have ever explained the cost overruns of the water plan projects to date, no one ever apologized to the customers for having mislead them time and again.
In 2006 I requested Judicial Inquiry to investigate why GVW elected the more expensive option, rejected by their own original consultants, to develop a water plan. That plan was only partially completed as even today we are working on its future. It was rejected by the Board.
Usually politicians want to find out why their consultants and staff spent 47% more on a water treatment plant then was required. No one is asking those questions. Yet the same consultants are providing the new plan for which we are asked to borrow $70 million. An additional $41 million is still required to complete the plan.
My request for a peer review was rejected by the Board in 2014. Now I would like to call for a forensic financial review of how the finances were managed that lead to the significant financial loss by the taxpayers. I would also like to know how the cost of the total separation costs increased from the estimated $35 million in 2002 to $89 million in 2012 even though about $12 million of those projects were already completed. Both estimates were given by the same financial analyst.
A cost of $70 million is a huge burden on the water customers. It should be spent wisely and based on past experiences the trust is not there.
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3 comments:
Why is no one asking the questions. Why does everyone with three exceptions always act surprised when it comes to water? Cheers Shawn Lee a drinker of water.
Well.......we have an election coming up. Time to purge those who fail to act!
The RDNO master water plan has many problems which ultimately boil down to cost vs benefit. The consultants hired to develop treatment options are basically the same bunch working on all major municipal water projects throughout the Province, and all proposals are remarkably similar: complicated and expensive. Provincial health authorities seem complicit by only endorsing systems which will more than exceed Canadian drinking water guidelines. The time to stand up to them is almost overdue. The only option left to Vernon and district taxpayers now is to vote NO in the upcoming borrowing referendum, then tell RDNO and IHA "try to make me pay for it". Remember, your water is already safe, but you can personally make it safer (at your own expense) if you don't believe me. It's certainly safe enough to spray on corn fields. Your residential water bill will immediately increase by more than 38% if you allow the bureaucrats to borrow this money.
If the MWP was peer reviewed by a major engineering firm in, say Europe, I think they would shake their heads in disbelief. Unlike us, many countries throughout the world have very significant issues with providing safe water to their citizens. A lot of work is currently underway to develop extremely cheap, simple, renewable and environmentally sound treatment methods for use in Third World countries. There is no reason we couldn't eventually use these emerging technologies too, but perhaps that's the real reason the MWP is being pushed on you so aggressively right now.
Dana Mills
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