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Water plan a ruse to build CVRD empire

The creation of the “Public Advisory Group” is nothing more than a smokescreen
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Water plan a ruse to build CVRD empire

Re: Water use plan

The creation of the “Public Advisory Group” is nothing more than a smokescreen for the CVRD whose real goal in all of this is to create a new bureaucratic empire at the CVRD called the Water Authority. What is really deceitful about this is that local government has no authority to legislate any control over water because water is in the domain of the provincial government. The CVRD wants to raise our taxes to collect millions of dollars for a department that can do nothing.

What is the logic in this? The Cowichan River flows have been successfully managed since the construction of the weir in the 1950s; the river has never run dry since then. The weir, at Cowichan Lake, is operated by Catalyst mill at Crofton, at no cost to property taxpayers. Now the CVRD has a desire to increase its bureaucratic empire and make the public pay the cost via increased property taxes. Where is the benefit in this?

The process is rigged against the property taxpayers; the CVRD is creating a smokescreen for this deception by hiring consultants to lead the PAG, at taxpayer expense, through a process that the CVRD has already determined what is to be the desired outcome. There is an old saying in the world of consulting: use your client’s watch to tell your client what time it is.

More deception is already in the works. The new water authority will require the public’s approval via a referendum. However, the CVRD has no intention of letting you vote on this matter in the next civic election. The CVRD’s ruse, to get this tax approved, is to use the sneaky alternative approval process rather than a referendum. The CAO of the CVRD has already approached North Cowichan council with that suggestion and our council, like sheep, did not question that.

Why can’t we have local government that is straightforward and honest with us and use the referendum at election time in October 2018 instead of using the crooked AAP that almost no one knows about? Once again, the system is rigged against the public by bureaucrats and our elected officials.

Don Swiatlowski

North Cowichan