IMPORTANT NEWS: City Meeting on a New Sewage Treatment Facility

Dear Neighbours,

The City's Liquid Waste Management (LWM) Steering Committee meeting lasted 17 minutes on Wednesday, January 23. Councillors Byng and Rodonets were absent which left Sandi Tremblay (Chair), Bob Astrope, Myrna Leishman, Stan Ghisborne (Regional District), and Eugene Louie (Sliammon). There were so many members of the public who showed up that the LWM Steering Committee decided to move to the large Council Chambers. That was the only decision that was made that day.

The subject of the Joint Advisory Technical/Local Advisory Group decision to locate a new consolidated wastewater treatment faciltiy at the old Waste Transfer Site was not on the agenda and was not brought up by any of the Committee members or City Staff! Instead, we, the public, witnessed more shenanigans from our City Council.

Don McKinnon, City Engineer, addressed the Steering Committee and, with a straight face, told them (and the public) that he had received an ``unsolicited`` letter from the City`s wastewater consultants, Dayton and Knight. I know none of you who have been following this tortured path will be surprised to learn that Dayton and Knight feels ``the best opiton is Townsite, followed by the Mill site`` for a new 10 acre, open ditch wastewater treatment facility.

Dayton and Knight`s specious rationale for advocating for these two sites is ``Both these opitons are located in an industrial site. Each site is near the ocean, which eliminates the critical odour nuisance potential of summer evening air movement from uphill land toward the ocean.`` Clearly, the guy who wrote this is no meterologist. And there is more: ``Visual impact can be addressed by appropriate architectural treatment and landscaping. Noise impact can be mitigated by adequate acoustic design such that noise will not be noticeable at nearby residences.`` I have attached the Dayton and Knight letter to this email for your perusal.

There was much discussion, without substance, about Catalyst`s proposal to co-treat the sewage at the mill. The Councillors stated that they didn`t really know much about this option and decided they really need to talk to Catalyst and find out more about it! Thus, they decided to not make a decision on a site for a new consolidated wastewater treatment facility at the Wednesday meeting.

Had not so many members of the public, largely from the Townsite, been there, the Steering Committee might have just decided to pick Townsite and get on with it. For those of you who did attend, a big 'thank you.' For those of you who weren't able to attend, please know that our City Council has not given up on putting a new sewage facility in the Townsite. Your continued monitoring of this issue is essential.

I submitted a request yesterday, also attached, to the LWM Steering Committee requesting that I, and other members of the Townsite Ratepayers, be allowed to make a presentation at their next meeting -- whenever that is. It`ll be sometime after they have sat down and had coffee with Catalyst, no doubt. I will keep you advised.

It`s hard not to wonder if the recent interest in the Catalyst option isn`t just a red herring and, at the next meeting, we will be told that the Catalyst option isn`t plausible which brings them back to the Townsite -- once again ignoring what the Public Representatives on the Joint Local-Technical Advisory Committee decided upon which is to locate a new sewage facility at the old Waste Transfer Site (Minutes of the Jt. Committee meeting are attached.) Pathetic.

Patricia Aldworth,
President,
Townsite Ratepayers Assn.

NOTE: The following relevant documents pertaining to this issue are available on the Townsite Document Centre:
* Sewage-DandK letter1-08.pdf
* Sewage-Jt.CommMinsNov07.pdf
* ltr-CityLWMPSteering(PDF).pdf

Forest industry 'under the gun'

By John McKinley - Cowichan News Leader and Pictorial - January 19, 2008

The combination of high wood costs, low availability of wood because of the lumber market in the U.S. and the high Canadian dollar mean 2008 will be the defining year for the forest industry.

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Pulp-and-paper businesses are in an emergency situation and to survive they must allow some mills to fail to preserve the overall health of the industry, a Catalyst Paper boss says.

“We’re absolutely under the gun at this point,” said Don McKendrick, vice-president of operations for Catalyst’s Crofton division.

“If we talk about the industry as a whole, we’re at a crisis situation.”

McKendrick added the next 12 months could mark a vital turning point for the entire industry.

“The combination of factors, the high wood costs, low availability of wood because of the lumber market in the U.S., the (high) Canadian dollar — all those factors rolled together mean my take is 2008 will be the defining year for those in the industry,” he said.

McKendrick said he believes there will be a more determined force on the part of the companies to eliminate unviable business operations.

“We’re absolutely an industry in crisis and it has to restructure itself,” he said.

“There are too many mills that shouldn’t be operating and should be allowed to go down.”

McKendrick said he isn’t being heartless about the matter. Instead, he’s a realist when he says some mills should disappear from the landscape.

“This is where you get small communities that suffer as a result of that and I have sympathy for them, but if you simply keep these mills alive you make the rest of the industry sick and that’s been going on for several years,” he said.

“Those that come out of this will be stronger, but many will not come out — I’m talking about mills, machines and companies.”

Bill Routley, president of United Steelworkers, Local 1-80 said he’s not surprised by the comments.

“That’s typical of some business thinking, that cutthroat way of not caring about workers or communities — it’s all bottom-line oriented,” he said.

“There are going to be people who have the knee-jerk reaction that we have to go around and shut everything down, but I don’t believe that’s the right way to do things.”

In fact, said Routley, the industry should take this time to invest in itself.

“I don’t believe we have to shut places to save the industry, I believe you have to look at other options,” he said.

“Are the only things we can make two-by-fours and two-by-sixes? We have to look at value-added products.”

That’s a view shared in a recent B.C. Pulp and Paper Task Force report on the state of the industry that recommends, among other things, funding research that encourages knowledge-creation and innovation, while at the same time supporting the sawmill sector.

Indeed, said McKendrick, who noted Catalyst is looking for ways to utilize every available part of a felled tree.

“We take the bark and the sawdust from the tree and that’s a tremendous opportunity for some of these new technologies that will generate products like these bio-fuels, biologically refined fuels or additives for other chemical industries or simply being burned to create electricity,” he said.

But it takes cash to do that, he said, money that could be found if Crofton got a break on North Cowichan taxes.

“Here in the Cowichan Valley I pay exactly twice the taxes to the municipality than I would on average anywhere else in North America,” he said.

“I paid $8.5 million last year, but remember, as a site, we provide our own fire protection, primary first-aid, security and our own water — in fact we supply water to the town of Crofton.

“We’re not getting anything for that money.”

McKendrick said he’s not asking for a handout, but if Crofton was located outside B.C. it would be paying only half the taxes it does now.

With that kind of extra cash, McKendrick said Catalyst could be cutting-edge.

“In the pulp-and-paper industry, we’re very capital intensive and you need to have the ability to reinvest and put the capital back in to modernize equipment on more sophisticated control strategies or more efficient, reliable equipment.”

Pulp and paper is a $4-billion industry in B.C. that provides jobs for 30,000 British Columbians and contributes more than $600 million in revenues each year to all three levels of government.

UPCOMING VOTING OPPORTUNITIES

There are two upcoming opportunities to make yourself officially heard.

NORTH HARBOUR MARINA IMPROVEMENTS LOAN AUTHORIZATION BYLAW 2178, 2007
The first opportunity is right now regarding the Westview Waterfront Project. The City is looking for authorization to borrow up to $6.5-million, for a maximum term of 25 years, for the purpose of carrying out infrastructure upgrades in the North Harbour.

Under section 86 of the Community Charter, the City may (and likely will) proceed with accepting the adoption of this bylaw unless at least 10% (or 997) municipal electors request that Council obtain the assent of electors by a majority vote. (click the image for the official Public Notice from the City of Powell River)

In other words, if you do not specifically tell the City you disagree with this proposal, they will assume you agree and thus, have your authorization to borrow this money. If you disagree with this proposal, please download the form from our blog (it is not available from the city's website) or pick it up at City Hall and return it to them not later than 4:30pm on Tuesday, February 19. PLEASE NOTE: postmarks are not accepted as date of submission.

To download the form from this blog, click on the image to the right and print it out.

BY-ELECTION TO ELECT A NEW CITY COUNCILLOR
The second opportunity will be SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 23 from 8:00am to 8:00pm when you can vote to elect one Councillor for a term commencing March 2008 and terminating December 2008. There are 6 candidates and in addition to the official voting, you can make your choice known in our second very unofficial and highly unscientific blog poll.

THE RESULTS ARE IN!

Yes, the eagerly-awaited results of our highly unscientific poll question [Are you in favour of a waste water treatment plant on the site of the old golf course?] are:

Total votes: 52
Yes - 2 (3%)
No - 48 (92%)
Unsure - 2 (3%)

And we have another poll of similar ilk inquiring how you will vote in the upcoming by-election to elect a new Councillor.

SUSTAINABILITY CHARTER MEETING

The town of Rossland, BC already has a draft of a Strategic Sustainability Plan. Check it out here:

http://cfdcmall.com/cms/index.php?id=338