An oft-heard complaint is -- "Where are the police when you need them? When you don't need them, they're everywhere!"
Okanagan residents can now add Environment Minister Barry Penner to that perennial complaint.
He was nowhere to be found at the end of April when Stage 3 water restrictions were imposed in the North Okanagan, and we're guessing he hasn't kept track of the decidedly dysfunctional Regional District of North Okanagan (whose directors come from Coldstream, Vernon, and Areas B "etc." and sit on the equally dysfunctional Water Board). Minister Penner likely hasn't read the 10 year old report that stated new water source(s) should be sought for a growing community. He likely also wasn't aware that the Water Board's budget this year included $100,000 of taxpayer dollars for yet another water study. Residents are still shaking their heads that yet another study is being commissioned, wasting another year or two.
Minister Penner was today quoted in The Province newspaper as saying: "People can help (water levels) by using less water now." Is he finally getting his cattle prod aimed at the inefficient directorship of the water board at RDNO so that new--or deeper--water sources can be acquired on the Aberdeen Plateau?
Nope. He's talking about fish. Not people.
Fish?
Yes, indeed. Environment Minister Penner wants water conserved so that returning salmon can spawn (warmer water makes salmon more prone to disease and parasites, the article explains).
"...if we don't," Minister Penner concludes, "water levels could fall to where voluntary measures may not be adequate. People can help by using less water now."
Really?
Well, Minister Penner, you're obviously also unaware of a letter to the editor of The Morning Star by one of this province's taxpayers--a Mr. Greg Allan--whose water conservation efforts have resulted in an alarming scenario. His letter follows:
"I received our second quarterly bill for water consumption and it showed our household used 12.5 cubic metres from April 1 to the end of June. During the previous three-month period, we used 15.5 cubic metres, for a six-month total of 28 cubic metres. We were expected to use 40 cubic metres in that same period, so we conserved 12 cubic metres of water, more than half of a three-month allotment. We get this water conservation concept.
However, we paid for 40 cubic metres, or put another way, we paid 30 per cent more for that water than a customer who used 40 cubic metres. It sure pays to conserve. When I received our first bill, I went to the North Okanagan Regional District office and spoke with Al Cotsowth and he told me that 'snowbirds' were to blame for the new water rate structure. Apparently they are not using enough water, yet are benefitting from the infrastructure improvements being made to the water delivery system. As well, our household is in the very small minority of households that uses less water than the average (20 cubic metres/three months) household. He mentioned that only four or five other households had contacted him after receiving their first bill under the new rate structure. I suggested to him that households that conserve water should have their balance carried forward to the next period, just like cell phone minutes.
This logical suggestion seemed to be beyond the capability of the billing system and might I suggest, beyond the grasp of the politicians and bureaucrats that set the water rates. At the end of the day, our household will stop conserving water if the rate structure does not change (bold--Editor). Twelve cubic metres would be a good start to filling an in-ground pool.
Congratulations NORD, you have just created a water guzzler. (bold--Editor). Now I just have to figure out how to get some level of government to give me the money to pay for my pool?
Hey, Colin Mayes, I have a shovel-ready project. Is there any infrastructure money left that needs to be spent?"
Thanks, Greg Allan, for pointing out who the real culprit is...the North Okanagan Regional District.
"The fish can blame NORD, too," suggests Kia.
Minister Penner should too, now that he's finally interested.
Thank goodness the Salmon are returning, or the minister would still not know what's wrong in this area...NORD!
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ReplyDeletewww.env.gov.bc.ca/pac/photos/bpenner/2010/okanagan-snowpack/
Whoever Anonymous (above) is...perhaps Minister Penner's aide--who provided the public relations link URL--missed the point of the story entirely. Please read the story again or, better yet, allow Minister Penner to read it.
ReplyDeleteFirst of all, Minister Penner's visit was to Lake Country in the Okanagan water basin. Vernon and area in the North Okanagan receives more than half of its irrigation and domestic water from Duteau Creek, which drains into the Shuswap, not Okanagan. The Okanagan Basin Water Board could've weighed the snow for him; after all, the OBWB--an unelected group--now issues grants to communities. Years ago, no-one had ever heard of them. Who appointed them? the Minister? Do they represent you? me? They've never contacted me to ascertain my business' water needs or explained what happened to my paid-up 50 gpm allocation. Come to think of it, it, neither has my elected official in Coldstream, Doug Dirk, but that's another story in itself!
Secondly, there's Minister Penner's comment "water levels could fall to where voluntary measures may not be adequate. People can help by using less water now." Yet a letter to the editor (verbatim, see story above) from Greg Allan detailed the disturbing impact of his family's conservation methods. Excerpt here: "...so we conserved 12 cubic metres of water, more than half of a three-month allotment. However, we paid for 40 cubic metres, or put another way, we paid 30 per cent more for that water than a customer who used 40 cubic metres. Congratulations NORD, you have just created a water guzzler." Al Cotsworth of the Water Board blamed the inequity "on snowbirds". So it's a water revenue--not water conservation--issue!
It's not the voluntary conservation efforts that are lacking! People are conserving. But the long-standing problem remains the dysfunctional and inefficient North Okanagan Regional District, on whose water board sit our elected officials as directors from Coldstream, Vernon, Areas B, C etc. The directors' long-standing biases, grudges and gripes serve to ensure this growing community will never have enough water for its residents. We are the laughing stock of at least two water purveyors in Kelowna, just south of us. And we should be. They said they have enough water to supply Vernon! A study commissioned by NORD 10 years ago indicated that a deeper/newer water source be obtained for this growing community. Was it? Nope. The water board this year has $100,000 budgeted for yet another study that will say the same thing as the old study. Doesn't put an additional drop of water in my tap!
Did Minister Penner even touch on the revenue versus conservation inequity? Nope.
Did Minister Penner know--or show concern--of the water governance problems at NORD? Nope.
Heck, even former Minister of Municipal Affairs, Ida Chong--who called for a governance review in the North Okanagan--quickly backed off and dropped the review. She likely knew what a witches' brew NORD concocts. Even local MLA--Eric Foster--indicated "Victoria has no jurisdiction over the regional district," when questionned earlier this year. So who does have jurisdiction over NORD, the controllers of our water source(s) and rates?
Nobody's owning up to that.
Not the elected directors of the water board at NORD.
And not Minister Penner, who only visited the area four months ago to measure how much water was in the remaining snowpack.