Agriculture Water Rates Increase

Greater Vernon Water, obviously bowing to years-long pressure from residents, is finally increasing agricultural water rates--albeit by a measly amount that doesn't address the cost of treating irrigation water to the same standards as domestic.

Why?  Because separating domestic from irrigation water wasn't GVW's priority.
Bureaucrats and consultants even went so far as to tell residents that grants would not be available for separating the two systems...a fact now proven incorrect with the awarding of grants to the Kelowna area, for just that purpose!

"Currently between $950,000 and $1,050,000 is collected for agricultural water use, but the actual cost is much more," says Kiss-FM's website on March 23rd, 2017.

No kidding.

So a 3.7% ag water rate increase is going to be phased in over three years.

Huh?
A measly one-point-something increase a year?

"...right now we are falling a little bit short of capturing that through agricultural rates," said Bob Fleming, chair of Regional District North Okanagan."

A bit short?
Jeezz...

Agriculture will still, after 3 years, contribute barely 4 per cent of GVW's annual budget.

Source:  G.Kiss

"Yeah, considering that agriculture uses 15 per cent more water annually than domestic," Kia would've said, "I'd agree they're a bit short."

A lot short.

Kelowna's grant March 19th blog post here.

Happy New Year....sort of

Sheesh, are we ever missing el Nino!
Weather and other stuff...
'Coz la Nina is turning out to be a very bad girl, with -17C mornings.
And daytime temps barely rising by 5 or 6 degrees.

Feels like a new Little Ice Age right now...

And my Mom's in hospital; chiefly with age related symptoms as she's 93.
She had frequently been losing her balance, and with the fear of falling, she adopted more sedentary days.
That led to other things.
But she's receiving excellent care at the new hospital tower, in a private room with her own bathroom.

A wonderful walk-in shower; note the designer wallpaper above the tiles.

Why don't our homes have bathrooms like this?
People would be able to age in place...longer.

Back to Mom's situation. 
There'll be a discussion with Interior Health in the next day or two about the urgency for Mom's assisted living need, despite the purported "6-8 month wait" list.


Yes, the New Year.
As widely reported, it's the time for price increases to take effect.
Hydro, insurance, water, medical premiums, property taxes etc. etc.; the list goes on.

No wonder people drink.

But wait until you see your property tax increases!
Remember that assessments each year are based on the previous July's assessed value!
And we all know what happened to property values in B.C. last summer.

For that reason, don't feel placated by your City's reported "2-something percent" increases.
As the euphemism goes "cost of living increase...my arse".
Sounds like assessments are going up by almost 8 per cent...(some as high as 30 per cent)...without any announced increase in your community's mill rates.  Yet.

What else is new?

Oh yes, received a note that my submission to Hydro's request for public comment on their tiered rate for electricity was accepted before the end of November deadline.  After a bit of digging, discovered my submission here.
If you're ever suffering from insomnia, here's the list of all the submissions....scroll down to the very bottom and click on “E Exhibits – Letters of Comment”.

And the threat of huge water increases deserves a mention.
Same ole, same ole in many ways, with Greater Vernon Water saying that rates will go up by about 2 per cent.

"...all they have been doing

 over the last several years

 is taking our money

 without spending any of it."

 Coldstream Councillor Pat Cochrane                   

Highlands Golf--and the other much larger irrigation users--will be hit especially hard in 2017.

The proposal is for ICI customers (industrial, commercial, institutional) to pay residential water rates for the first 1,000 cubic metres.

That proposal is one segment of the recommended 2017 Water Rate Pricing submitted to the Greater Vernon Advisory Committee (some of whom have residences that are on well water and, frankly, probably don't give a damn what water rates are!)

The 40-page proposal is worth a read, folks!

The proposal is for rates to increase almost 4 per cent annually for each of the next three years.

One very interesting comment from Coldstream councillor Pat Cochrane was reported in the newspaper:  "At some point it gets a little silly to keep increasing the rates when you have money in the bank."  He concluded "...all they have been doing over the last several years is taking our money without spending any of it."  It took a long, long time but Councillor Gyula Kiss has a new ally in Councillor Cochrane. 


But don't believe that as it's with the typical condition that GVW imposes:  that they don't lose the revenue from large water users.  (Large water users doesn't include agricultural...'coz they don't pay bugger all to begin with, so the utility will NEVER lose those customers.  On the contrary, agriculture water use is increasing like mad, although it'll take the water utility a couple of years to report that).

A recent quote from letter-writer Jim Miles--whose sentiments mirror even the Occupy movement's meme--concluded a letter he submitted on another topic.  It went thus:

"...also know that the elites, the governments, the media and the powers continually lie to the populace, manufacturing consent for aggression, to serve their own interests, not the interests of the farmers, factory workers, labourers and the every day citizens of the world."

    Jim Miles...............

Jim Miles obviously isn't fooled.

Speaking of serving their own interests, have a look at this report of executive compensation.

"Feeling alone, despite being part of the 99 per cent," Kia would've said.

Ain't that the truth!

Is it 5 o'clock somewhere?
Probably in the boardrooms of the nation.

Thankfully, there's one very good thing: 

Grandson was loving the weather...

Thank God for grandchildren!

A lot of topics dumped into this one post...a catch-up.

 

Residential Complaints Head to Victoria...Eventually

Victoria occasionally needs ganging up on by municipalities.

Especially when the MLA--in this case Eric Foster--dragged his heels (or knuckles) and refused to handle residents' complaints.

Think of Stickle Road (which isn't in Coldstream's area...but a contentious issue nevertheless).  Residents and business owners of that area attended several public hearings where the Ministry of Transportation heard concerns and suggestions designed to improve safety where the road meets Hwy. 97N.

MLA Foster didn't even attend.
Finally explaining why, he inanely stated it was to prevent it "being all about me..." 

Huh?
All about him?

But he jumped into the Amphitheatre fray early on, and soon announced that he would tell Victoria not to allow its construction, stating that a more suitable location needed to be found...(away from all those angry voters.)
 
That's basically what the annual Union of B.C. Municipalities meetings are...communities all over B.C. attend with recommendations in an attempt to gain allies among mayors and planners and bureaucrats so that projects have an improved likelihood of success with government ministers.

Whether communities want money, more money, more money or more laws and money, they go to the annual Union of B.C. Municipalities meetings with their recommendations.  "Minister grovelling" has become downright critical to a community's goals.

Let's see what's firing Coldstream's jets this year:
(Click table to enlarge)

• Water infrastructure funding...yup, residents on the GVW water system are all, well, tapped out. Especially since they're meeting soon to discuss new water rates and furthering the Master Water Plan despite the $70 million borrowing referendum having been rejected in November of 2014.

• MMBC recycling program...FINALLY a hint that officials have been listening to residents' complaints.  Seems they're finally realizing more and more people are simply putting "un-pickup-ables" into the garbage, having given up sorting and separating previously accepted items. 

• Complaints or issues arising from ALR properties ... whether it's the bird-guns or helicopters that protect cherries from birds and rain damage, residents are wondering whether mile-high buffers are necessary. 

Back to water.
Bob Spiers' Vernonblog indicates three recommendations that are on the hot plate in the next month at RDNO/GVW:

1. Greater Vernon Water (GVW) Strategic Plan for Rates and Fees Structure Workshop – Questions & Answers - Report dated June 20, 2016 RECOMMENDATION 2 Page 1 That the requested information from the May 26, 2016 Special Greater Vernon Advisory Committee meeting regarding the Greater Vernon Water (GVW) Strategic Plan for Rates and Fees Structure Workshop be received for information and discussion at the July 21, 2016 Special Greater Vernon Advisory Committee meeting. 2. Financial Options and Considerations – Greater Vernon Water Master Water Plan - Presentation from the April 14, 2016 GVW 2012 Master Water Plan Stakeholder Advisory Committee Meeting FOR DISCUSSION Page 14 3. 2012 Master Water Plan Review – Stakeholder Advisory Committee Statements and Recommendations - Report dated May 2016
RECOMMENDATION 3 Page 22 That it be recommended to the Board of Directors the request from the Citizens for Changes to the Master Water Plan to hire an independent engineering consultant to undertake a peer Greater Vernon Advisory Committee Agenda – Regular - Special - 2 - June 29, 2016 review of the 2012 Master Water Plan not go forward. 

By the way, don't look for the agenda yet that contains the above.
It'll be available to we peons a few days before the meeting(s).

 

 

"What's that saying...give (some) politicians two terms...one in office and one in jail?" asks Kia.

More Letters to Editor

What's the saying?  If everybody who felt the same on a given topic (as authors of letters to the editor) actually wrote a letter to their community publication's editor, their mail room would be inundated.

"The basic ideal belief in public sphere theory is that the government's laws and policies should be steered by the public sphere, and that the only legitimate governments are those that listen to the public sphere.

  "Democratic governance rests on the capacity of

and opportunity for citizens to engage in enlightened debate".

from Wikipedia here.

Democratic governance indeed!

Fiscal water woes continue to drip, by Jim Bodkin:

"We've been water boarded.  Don't believe me?  Just check your recently mailed quarterly utilities invoice for Oct. 1, 2015 to Dec. 31, 2015.

Amnesty International says water boarding is torture.  So does the United States Supreme Court.  That's why, when the CIA wants to water board prisoners, it keeps them outside America in Guantanamo Bay.  But that's physical water boarding:  ours is fiscal and the torture is to our wallets.

Greater Vernon Water utility has refined their local technique of water boarding (with the rubber stamping connivance of RDNO political appointees) into an esoteric art form that gouges the pocketbooks of each and every one of us.

In 2010, we were charged a base fee of $50.17 per quarter that included up to 10 cubic metres of water at no additional charge.  Our base fee then was in the upper quartile of normal municipal practice and the amount of water included as in the lower quartile.  A bit pricey for what we got but still not totally out-of-whack with what other cities were doing.

Our latest base fee has jumped to $101.80 per quarter, it does not include a single drop of water and that is for a commodity that is absolutely essential for life.  That's $407.20 to Greater Vernon Water per annum for Sweet Fanny Adams.  That is the fiscal water boarding you and I are being subjected to.  It makes Greater Vernon Water unique.  It puts us completely off the charts.  It is unlikely that any other city in Canada charges so much for so little.  And, have you heard?  It isn't going to stop ... our water utility has just asked for another two per cent raise.

Speak up now or forever hold your peace.  Shake off your voter complacency and become outspoken.  Greater Vernon Water and their political enablers are counting on your lack of participation to let them serve their wants rather than our needs.

Are you going to continue letting them soak you for millions to treat water to drinking quality standards then spray it on such low value crops as hay and silage corn?  Are you going to stay mute when you see overhead crop irrigation occurring on windy or hot sunny days when most of it goes to waste?

Well, if you do not speak up my voice will just be lost in the wilderness as was that of Coldstream councillor Gyula Kiss.  

Seems that with regard to water our plutocratic and politico mantra is to either ignore or give the squeaky wheel the boot.

That's led us to being water boarded and why it is necessary for you and me to take action if we want it to stop.  Defeating the water referendum was not sufficient.

We need to put a stop to the indecisive dithering and get a solution.

Juliette Cunningham and Jim Garlick preside over what happens to water.  Make sure they hear your voice."  Jim Bodkin

And another letter:

Simple solution?  by Brock Penner, from the same issue: 

"Here is my 'simple' solution for fixing the water problem in Vernon.

Build a water treatment facility straight up from Kal Lake on a section of the existing forest research property across from Okanagan College. 

Pump the water out of Kal Lake at the existing pump house, run it up the hill, treat it and pump it out from there.  It's on top of a hill so the gravity distribution shouldn't be a problem.

It's close to town and not way up on a mountain way out of town.  It's accessing water from Kal Lake so we wouldn't have to share the water rights with other Okanagan communities.

The lake is very deep so the pipe can be run deep to avoid the zebra mussels that are apparently on their way.

We live on two massive lakes (one that an probably be seen from space) and we seem to think that building holding ponds and treating the water way up on a mountain somewhere is a good idea.  A 100 years ago this was a necessary to utilize gravity to distribute the water but surely we can move this closer to town in this modern world of pumps and electricity.

This is just my simple idea.  I'm sure I'm wrong and the good letter writers of Vernon will let me know but it seems sensible to me.

Let's take a step back and look at the situation.  KISS keep it simple..."  Brock Penner

And another from last Sunday's issue:

"Yesterday, a Penticton friend and I compared total 2015 residential water costs.

Similar consumption, same number of occupants.

Mine was 187 per cent higher.

That’s quite the growth management strategy, elected officials!"

"We should build a water pipeline and buy water from any one of the numerous more reasonably-priced communities that surround Greater Vernon," says Kia.

We may have to, Kia, as it appears we don't have a legitimate government.