All the talk from the local mayors and councillors from Colwood and Langford was that the waster treatment and energy reclamation facilities on the Westshore would be a private-partnerships with the cities of Colwood and Langford. As an attendee at all the CRD Open Houses on the Westshore about waste water treatment, I noted that the vast majority of all the residents who came out to the meetings and took part in the group discussions, were strongly in favour of fully publically owned and operated facilities.

The CRD Core Area Liquid Waste Management Committee (CALWMC) must have felt that pressure. The original recommendation was that the West Shore plant and resource recovery components of the energy centre were be procured with an alternative service delivery (design-build-finance-operate or design-build-operate), otherwise known as a P3 approach.

However, in a media release by the CRD, on March 25, 2010, “the Capital Regional District (CRD)’s Core Area Liquid Waste Management Committee has approved the Business Case for Provincial Funding and Procurement for the Core Area Wastewater Treatment Project. The West Shore plant and resource recovery components of the energy centre will be procured using either traditional or an alternative service delivery (design-build-finance-operate or design-build-operate), otherwise known as a P3 approach. The publically funded is back as an option for the Westshore .”

Those recommendation will now be forwarded to a special meeting of the CRD Board on Wednesday March 31 at 1:30pm at 625 Fisgard Street. It is vitally important that citizens from the Westshore attend this meeting and let their CRD representaives know they are accountable to the citizens for their decisions, and where they stand on public ownership.

Colwood’s rep. to the CRD is Mayor Dave Saunders (mayorsaunders@telus.net)
Langford’s rep. to the CRD is Councillor Denise Blackwell (denise.blackwell@shaw.ca)