Editor:
I could hardly believe my eyes when I read “’Strategizing’ continues for regional water” in the May 3 Coast Reporter! I have been an SCRD taxpayer since 1974 and we’ve had a drinking water shortage since then.
My family and I drank over-chlorinated water from Trout Lake as one of the many stop-gap measures taken by the SCRD. The SCRD allowed our well-meaning environmentalists to remove our control over Chapman Lake. It took two years to put a simple siphon system in place and another two years to add a supportive water well. Gibsons has helped by providing support that they can spare. The shíshálh Nation’s current potential offering of additional water storage is another stop-gap measure. But when our fearless leader of the SCRD chooses to delay approval of a strategic plan, because he is not certain that his constituents’ needs are included in the plan, I am flabbergasted!
Especially, when the first item of the strategic plan states: “be action oriented!” Then he has the gall to say that “the committee has acted a bit too fast!” Pardon my impatience, but this is 2024! You would think that after 50 years we would have a believable strategic plan in place and being worked on. I relealize demands change and stop-gap measures have helped along the way, but at the rate we are moving, we will have new ferries in operation on Route 3 before we have a plan. It is about time that the SCRD be challenged to have in place a long-term plan by year-end 2024, that will service the water needs for the next 50 years. Everyone knows that it will cost significant dollars, but it is not going to be cheaper in the future. It wouldn’t hurt to try to access some federal infrastructure funding to help us in our battle for one of life’s basic needs.
Len Pakulak
Sechelt
