If anyone wanted to see how much thought has been applied to the decision to proceed with land-based sewage treatment, the comments of Capital Regional District chair Geoff Young, must surely win the gold medal for utter nonsense.
Young stated after last week’s board meeting, “The idea we are going to be allowed to continue to dump this stuff into the ocean and assume it does no harm, because we can’t detect the harm, is something that is not going to appeal to (provincial and federal) regulators … When we talk about delay, we have to be concerned about the fact they’re offering us two-thirds of the cost.”
Think about this for several seconds:
1) Young admits there is no evidence that harm is being done by the current screening system;
2) it doesn’t matter that dozens of marine scientists and studies can’t detect any harm, Young and the regulators know better;
3) he forgets that the folks paying the other two-thirds of the cost are us as taxpayers, not some wealthy benefactor; and
4) he implies that sewage treatment won’t improve the problem one iota, since he has confirmed there is no evidence that a problem actually exists.
Shouldn’t we now retire some of our brilliant leaders who love nothing better than creating monuments at our expense?
Hopefully, this latest turn of events will at least force our leaders to commission a proper study to determine what benefits, if any, we will get for the biggest expenditure of tax funds in Victoria’s history.
Better yet, let’s elect people who will do their homework and stand up for our best interests.
Bob Wheaton
Saanich