It's interesting to see that the true facts have finally reached the light of day around water use.
After scolding the Valley residents for several years for using too much water, twice the national average they said, and advocating that upwards of $30M be spent on costly water meters as a solution to their fabricated problem, the Regional District has had to finally admit that Courtenay and Comox use dramatically less than the whopping 675 litres/person/day they were claiming.
At 481 litres /person/day and 428 litres/person/day, residents of Courtenay and Comox consume less water than the B.C. provincial residential average at 490 litres /person/day and are in the bottom third of consumption compared to many other B.C. communities.
In fact, the City of Courtenay has progressively reduced their water use by over 23% since 2003 and that includes last year which was a drier and hotter summer than we have had in recent memory.
In addition to being Mayor of Comox, Mr. Ives also sits on the Board of Directors of the Regional District and is Chairman of the RD Water Committee. These are important positions when it comes to water in the Comox Valley.
Mayor Ives and his council supporters Fletcher, Crossley and Arnott rammed through a $1.4M start to a long term $10.5M program to install water meters in Comox. No formal public consultation or involvement, and driven by the bad information from the Regional District.
Even when the real facts became public and the misinformation was exposed, Mayor Ives wasn't interested in taking a second look to see if his plan still made sense. His mind was made up. The Town of Comox budget would be pushed through to include his water meter agenda.
At the same time, as Chair of the Regional District Water Committee, he has presided over the RD's attempt to meter all of the Comox Valley, as well as spearheaded the passing of the new water use bylaw. Valley residents have now been forced into much more severe water restrictions that include significant fines every year from June 1st to September 30th, no matter how much water we have. It's their way of making sure that "we get it" when it comes to water use.
His RD Water Committee and RD Staff are also responsible for the previous misinformation around consumption rates as well as stating that if we don't install water meters it will compromise our ability to access future B.C. funding grants. That claim has proven to be false also.
Their water agenda has come with a steep price to taxpayers. Water budgets in the Town of Comox and the Regional District have ballooned during Mr. Ives' tenure.
He has been quoted in a recent newspaper article as saying that he didn't think the Province would increase our water license for Comox Lake unless the community shows they've been able to manage demand. Even though the community has indeed demonstrated that we have managed our demand, Mr. Ives and the RD Staff have not let the Provincial Government know.
In fact the Regional District applied in 2003 for an increase to our water license and it appears that nothing happened until February 2009 when the Regional District advised they weren't prepared to submit the necessary information to the Ministry of Environment to support the request and advised the Ministry that they would have to re apply at a later date.
Could it be that our water license is being used as justification for the implementation of their water meter agenda?
It's clear that Mr. Ives is determined to push his ideals on our community no matter what the facts and costs may be. And he is certainly in the right positions to achieve just that.
What is even more concerning is that the Chair of the Board of the Regional District will soon be up for grabs.
I guess fiscal responsibility and common sense just don't hold water with some our elected politicians.
Gordon Grant
Property owner, Town of Comox
