Only SOME Squeaky Wheels...

Rolke's editorial in the Morning Star today on Nexus Community Resource Center being denied--and then having reinstated--funding as a result of the Squeaky Wheel Syndrome really only applies to some things, especially with a provincial election schedule for May, 2017.

Two excerpts from the editorial are:

"Government frequently buckles

 when faced with negative headlines,

editorials and letters to the editor."

and

"The bottom line is that the squeaky wheel

 got the grease initially

 and the government backed off

on its earlier decision..."

Not everything gets that treatment...

Think back to November 2014 when the majority of Greater Vernon Water customers soundly rejected the $70 million borrowing referendum.

But a stakeholders' advisory committee of residents was formed, you say?
And they ultimately recommended keeping two water sources and two water treatment plants...albeit with the "real plus" of forcing filtration first at Mission Hill Water Treatment Plant (versus bureaucrats' plans to filter Duteau Creek first).

Yes, but...
Think back to all those local politicians who--during the last municipal election (OK, you may feign surprise at the timing!)--agreed with residents and said they themselves would not support Master Water Plan 2012.
Then did an about-face and supported the plan?

Well...is the squeaky wheel getting greased now?
Are residents getting a streamlined MWP that minimizes domestic costs as a result of agricultural separation?  
Nope.

Gyula Kiss said it best:

"SAC members could have learned a lot by asking the politicians why they publicly rejected the referendum during their election campaign after they supported the MWP. They could have saved a lot of time.  Even Director Macnabb wondered about why there was a change of heart by many of the politicians...."

As it happened the Staff supported Option 2 prevailed, eliminating all of the options that would have used Kalamalka and Okanagan lakes for fully separated domestic supplies. Never mind the threat of climate change and higher treatment costs. 

The process will totally dismantle the original VID irrigation system and replace it with a complicated new system. There will be three supply lines (domestic only from Mission Hill, mixed irrigation/domestic water from the Duteau Treatment Plant and a new untreated irrigation water supply directly from Harvey Lake). All those systems will be the financial responsibility of the domestic customers. They will pay the cost of construction, operation and maintenance and the replacement value of the total system. The current 4% agriculture contribution of the total budget is a smidgen of those costs."  From Coldstreamernews, June 21/16 article.

So is our local government backing off?
All those biased politicians who were in office when they themselves approved the MWP?
Not a chance.

Because bureaucrats run the show.
Aided by consultants they've hired.
And bureaucrats want that Master Water Plan to proceed, hang the costs (because they themselves make up to three times the salaries that working residents earn, and easily tenfold what retirees have to live on).

So where's the squeaky wheel syndrome?

Not here.
Not for GVW customers.
Not for the Master Water Plan.
Not for procedural fairness and parity.

"The wheel has fallen off," offers Kia, "from sheer neglect."

The lubricant went elsewhere.
Maybe it was given away.

NexusBC's Lynn Belsher knows how it goes...lucky NexusBC.