Basran GVW's Scapegoat?

Seems Kelowna's new mayor, Colin Basran, has spread his wings to become Greater Vernon Water's defender.  At least, a defender of an integrated regional water system.

Timely indeed, as GVW's bureaucrats circle the wagons, drawing into the fray local politicians--and since this September 19th story--Basran.  No matter that the majority of local politicians waffled during November 2014's water referendum, first supporting it then many withdrawing that support.  The flip flop continues as local politicians appear to favour the Master Water Plan's goals, despite what their electorate wants.  GVAC Chair Cunningham and SAC Chair Jim Garlick can correctly be labelled as same old, same old.   No peer review of the plan, no independent expert which had been the public's focus, no transparency of what the plan's water consultants were told by bureaucrats at the outset (as their terms of reference).

Same old, same old everything.
In other words, delay delay delay.
Sabotage by committee...create a non-expert advisory committee to the advisory committee.

“When possible, refer items to committees

 for further study.

Make the committee as large as possible

to ensure ineffectiveness.

It has been stated that large committees

 are where ideas go to die” (anonymous)

Maybe bureaucrats believe that if delay is sufficient, they'll have at least half of that requested $70  million in their coffers!  At a recent meeting, General Manager Finance, S. Banmen, replying to an official request on the revenue implications of Stage 1 water restrictions (to reduce consumption by 10 per cent) gave a verbal report.  A verbal report?  Convenient.  No record.  No reduced dollar figure in the minutes.  Simply that he gave a verbal report.  Perhaps Banmen wasn't aware there's a provision to add Late Items to an Agenda.  To make the item official.  Perhaps he was.

To this, add the convenient and timely desire for an integrated water system from a mayor 35 miles south of Vernon.

As this blog's September 19th story indicated: "The gist ... is that Kelowna's new mayor, Colin Basran, said last week that "...(Kelowna) wants to work with the province and the irrigation districts to develop a long-term plan that leads to an integrated and resilient water system that delivers clean drinking water to all citizens at equitable rates and offers a sustainable supply for agriculturalists."

How convenient for GVW's bureaucrats that Basran seeks to spread his wings to create one water utility from the five current "fiefdoms", as the Kelowna story called the existing water districts.

"Let's hope Basran is aware of how GVW has screwed up the North Okanagan water system by chlorinating nearly 90 per cent of agricultural water," this blog's story argues. 


The Greater Vernon Water website states of the Plan:  "The purpose of the Master Water Plan is to ensure that our community’s present and future water quality and water supply needs, as well as critical health protection goals are met in an efficient and financially sustainable manner. The Master Water Plan provides direction for the long-term planning and implementation of water system improvements with the provision of continuing the importance of a cost effective agricultural irrigation water supply."

Somewhere since 2002 and 2004 and 2012's rewrite of the Plan the words "economical supply" (to customers obviously) got lost.  The two phrases "Financially sustainable" and "cost effective" are now found.  Financially sustainable and cost effective for whom?  Certainly not for the area's water users, so reference must be to Greater Vernon Water itself...that the utility serves itself. 

Then up pops an expert...perhaps not in communication, but of our area's water history, diverting opponents by urging SAC committee members to "look beyond perceptions."

Donning her teaching hat, Zee Marcolin, Manager GVW, was quoted in an October 4th Morning Star story as saying:  "Kelowna has five utilities and the City of Kelowna's utility covers a compact area and only has domestic customers and not agriculture....after years of discussions, Vernon and Coldstream's municipal utilities merged with the former Vernon Irrigation District in 2002 to form a single entity.  GVW is the third largest utility in B.C. by volume...we are one of the few regional systems," she stated.
Strange that Ms. Marcolin would go public (with the newspaper story) versus directly addressing the SAC committee!

The fact remains that every domestic customer on the GVW water user base is paying higher rates than necessary because agriculture is subsidized by domestic customers.  Wasn't that why the referendum failed?  Yes it was.  By charging domestic customers more than the cost of delivery and treatment of domestic customers' water, the GVW budget became a deep yawning fissure of non-transparency into which revenues disappeared.   "Even the Monarchy is more transparent," chuckled a resident this summer.

The teaching continued.  Coldstream's mayor Jim Garlick jumped into the opportunity:  "There isn't just one utility called the Kelowna utility...the five irrigation districts...are fragmented."

And lo and behold, the circling of bureaucrats' wagons may include more choreography than originally anticipated.  A "plant" (a mole) into the SAC committee.  Following CCMWP chair Terry Mooney's query as to the status of CCMWP's Letters of Request, the individual's crude departure from requisite decorum demanded by Robert's Rules of Order addressed not SAC chair Garlick--but Terry Mooney directly--and demanded that the grassroots group's Letters be withdrawn!  Those Letters represented the wishes of ~1,000 water user signatories and were therefore not withdrawn.  Wishing to either intimidate--or impress--either the bureaucrat or the politico who encouraged his application as a SAC volunteer, the tactic wasted time and likely offended the group's authentic volunteers. 


Delay appears to be the chief goal of bureaucrats, and the request for an independent expert/consultant was deferred until after the SAC term, expected to be March 2016.  So while SAC members are learning, all the experts who created the Master Water Plan are present to share their bias...er...a...knowledge.  No new professional opinions, no options, nothing but an (eventual) rubber stamping of what we have now, which will continue unabated.  A master water plan without funding.

The GVW List of Assumptions needs to be picked apart, as numerous items are outright fabrications or wish lists of the bureaucracy.  And also, unedited Adopted Motions of elected officials were never presented to SAC either!  SAC's Terms of Reference that included "consensus, with no Voting, majority rule"  is an easily challenged statement because it serves to confuse the volunteer members.

"Pity the official members of SAC that they're exposed to the behaviour of the Macnabb Twin," offers Kia, adding "recognizable by their shared contempt for others' opinions." 


No nametags required.

Oh...and Mr. Basran shouldn't respond to any more bureaucrat/politician appeals from the North Okanagan.