Water utilities speak out

By Wayne Moore -CASTANET - Feb 17, 2016 / 11:40 am

Squabble, dispute – call it what you will, city hall and four water districts are at odds over integrating the city's water system. Five different water purveyors, including the city, provide water to Kelowna residents. While everyone seems to agree the system will be integrated at some point, how to get there and what governance will look like is at issue. "I think we all want to end up at the same place. There's a bit of a disagreement as to how to get there," said Southeast Kelowna Irrigation District GM Toby Pike. “The city wants to push governance right now. That's really, if you want to say there's a contention or a sticking point, what this whole mediation is about,” said Steve Bonn, chair of trustees of the Glenmore-Ellison Irrigation District. “We see our ratepayers being held hostage in the process.” "All we're saying is: let's put a plan in place with an end goal in mind of one integrated system, then let's talk about how we get there,” said Mayor Colin Basran last week. “But, at the end of the day, city council would like to see one integrated system with oversight by Kelowna city council." In 2012, all five water purveyors signed off on an implementation agreement, the first step was to obtain senior government funding for the hundreds of millions of dollars in required upgrades. One of the conditions laid down by the province was a Value Engineering Review of the technical report. Until that is complete, senior government funding will not be forthcoming – and that's where the dispute sits. Pike said everyone signed off on the plan which included a governance review after Phase 4. The city, he said, has changed its mind. "It seems the city wants a governance review as part of the value planning review of the technical document. From my point of view, a governance review is different than a technical solution to an engineering problem. "We're afraid if we get into a full governance review, we could be years developing a governance system." That, Pike and Bonn said, is the rub. Hundreds of millions of dollars are available for projects through the federal government, however, in order to apply, that review must be complete. “We all agreed to that but, now for some reason, the city has changed its mind.,” said Pike. “The specific issue we're squabbling over and, I wouldn't over emphasize dispute, it's just a squabble, is developing the terms of reference for this value planning review.” The dispute, as Bonn mentioned, is going to mediation. Former Shuswap MLA and cabinet minister George Abbott and Chris Trumpy have been asked by the province to try and find some common ground. That mediation effort is expected to begin within the next few weeks.