To the Editor,
Re: Referendum on loan for water treatment plant planned for fall, June 16.
I have to question not only the rationale of borrowing money for but of the water treatment plant itself.
Do we really need this plant; is a water treatment plant really the only option? Is it in fact a necessary piece of infrastructure? Is the city only proposing the building of a water treatment plant because the Vancouver Island Health Authority has told us we must?
How many other cities have been told to build water treatment plants by VIHA and how many of these are complying?
In the last 10 or 20 years, how many water advisory notices have gone out to residents of the City of Nanaimo and how many of these have been boil water advisories?
If these plants are so necessary then why are higher levels of government not funding the total package instead of expecting the citizens of Nanaimo to come up with 73 per cent of the cost? What is the penalty if we do not follow the mandate of VIHA?
I believe there are many questions, including these, that need answers. I also believe the taxpayers of Nanaimo deserve straight answers to these questions and not the bafflegab we are used to getting from the powers that be.
Gordon W. Fuller
Nanaimo