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How will you ensure a project or projects benefiting Peachland’s watershed receives provincial attention and funding?
Part of my platform is to form a stronger and better working relationship with the province and the relevant ministers, to the extent they are willing to listen. I am willing to travel to Victoria as necessary to form relationships to get Peachland heard.
How would you make this happen?
This is a tall order! I do not know the extent all the the levels of government and First Nations are willing to participate in this, but I certainly believe in taking bold steps to protect our watershed. I am currently investigating the merits of applying to the province to extend our boundaries to own our watershed, as Vancouver has done. There is a grant available to hire a specific consultant to do a store for this purpose. The study could be used for leverage when engaging government, so we can say we know what exactly we are advocating for.
Explain how you would implement this or why you would not.
Too hard to implement this. So currently a no. But willing to investigate the merits of the idea further, including the legalities of it.
What additions would you suggest to this second request letter, considering clear cutting has continued for the intervening three-plus years and still further road building and tree removal are planned?
A letter only carry’s so much weight. Expanding municipal boundaries is more effective imo
Does Peachland Have Enough Water? As of August 2022, no one in the District of Peachland can confirm we have enough water for all current and planned developments. A rough calculation suggests a population increase of 11,000 is possible if all approved and proposed developments on the books in the planning department are completed and occupied. District Consultants’ water supply reports quote a variety of numbers, gleaned from a variety of inconsistent assumptions. One report stated that in order to provide enough water for these developments, major engineering would be required in order to divert creeks and other water sources into Peachland Creek to feed the Peachland water-treatment plant. Besides the financial costs, such engineering works have the potential to permanently alter the ecosystem of the watershed, destroy fish-bearing habitat, wildlife connectivity, forests and habitat, recreation opportunity, trail systems, hunting grounds, and environmental water flow patterns. How much are you willing to compromise our water source for the sake of development, given that climate change may very well prolong water shortages, watering restrictions and potential engineering works for increasing the flow of water could cause irreparable environmental damage to the very ecosystem that creates the water in the first place? Are you comfortable engaging on behalf of the District if acquisition, disposition or expropriation of land or improvements in the watershed as well as service negotiations with Glencore or other industry, for example, may be involved?*
Too many questions to answer at once. And you are making assumptions. I am willing to understand exactly the status of our watershed and capacity to service Peachland before jumping to conclusions. I am all for advocating to change logging practises to help our watershed, and for expanding our boundaries to own our watershed. As for development, we should know how much more capacity we have. My understanding is we are nowhere near capacity.
. Costs to upgrade, expand or build a new Water Treatment Plant: In 2015, an amendment to the Peachland Water Master Plan was completed by Urban Systems, the conclusion of the report noted that “sufficient water is available within the Peachland Creek watershed to meet the demands of the District of Peachland and the environmental flows as required by the Ministry” at that time. As of today, the existing treatment and distribution system is appropriate for approximately 7100 people. With a future population projection in the region of 15,000, there will need to be some upgrades undertaken to meet those flow demands. For example, after the 7100 threshold is reached, an upgrade in storage / reservoir capacity at the treatment plant will be required. Similarly, once the 11,300 threshold is reached, an upgrade of the treatment plant (allowing us to generate more treated water) will be required. As these costs are principally related to further development, the cost will be borne by the developers through the mechanism of development cost charges. The most recent DCC update report estimates the overall costs for all of these upgrades to be approximately $45M. All previous and current developments did not supply near enough money to pay for the costs of the past WTP nor current new WTP, (usage fees, a $400 annual WTP tax, Federal and Provincial grants contributed to the costs). If elected, how will you ensure that these new costs will not be borne AGAIN by the current residents but, by the developers and the future residents through the mechanism of development cost charges, as the district staff suggest? Do you believe this is even possible? If so, how will you ensure Peachland starts to collect a portion of this $45M in your four-year term?
First if all, I question the $45 million price tag and what level of capacity the WTP can provide. Abs we will not grow that fast, as well some developments will stall. But in principle, you want developers to pat as much as possible towards infrastructure including the WTP. Can you on as a councillor guarantee that taxpayers will never have to pay for upgrades? No you can’t! No one has that kind of crystal ball. But you can commit to trying to make developers contribute as much as possible.