Dear Editor:
I am responding to the May 1 letter from Couns. Alan Nixon and Guy Heywood, Our Nasty P3: Paying for the Poop Plant. Unfortunately, they have significantly misrepresented both the history and the present reality of wastewater treatment in Metro Vancouver.
The financing formula for treatment plants was previously reviewed when the Annacis Island project was undertaken to serve eastern municipalities. The City and District of North Vancouver were asked to share the cost equitably across the region. They declined. Burnaby and other cities absorbed the additional costs of the new treatment plant, while North Vancouver enjoyed much lower sewerage rates by not participating in a region-wide cost equalization. Now, the shoe is on the other foot. Either the two politicians are not aware of the past position of their own councils or they are being intentionally disingenuous.
I am also truly surprised that they suggest opposition to privatization of our public infrastructure is "ideological." The Harper government has mandated that all projects seeking public funds must go through a privatization process, including private financing. Citizens face higher interest costs and loss of control of a public asset. The public sector always retains the risk, because the federal regulations require the plant to be built. If the private company fails, we have to take over and complete the project. One might ask why would the federal government insist we turn over our local treatment plant to the private sector or receive no federal funding? The only answer is an ideological commitment to privatization.
Planning a treatment facility to serve the North Shore is a difficult process. It does not help when local councillors muddy the waters with misinformation.
Derek Corrigan Metro Vancouver director Mayor of Burnaby
