While there was a fairly small turnout for the water meeting there was some spirited discussion. The real fireworks began when a representative of Ocean Park (Vinyl Village) questioned the fairness of a $700 quarterly charge for their fire flow meter given that they have switched over to individual water meters for each household.
It was explained that there are costs associated with the maintenance and servicing of a fire flow meter and that those costs should be recovered by the District of Tofino. The representative directly questioned Bob Schantz, the Superintendent of Public Works as to the maintenance of the fire flow meter. Bob Schantz stated that the meters have "not been serviced as they should have been ".( There are other fire flow meters in stratas in Tofino)
When further pressed about the issue ,the Superintendent of Public Works admitted that the fire flow meters have not been serviced as long as he has been employed as the Superintendent of Public Works. Records show that Bob Schantz was appointed to Superintendent of Public Works in 2010.
31 comments:
Definitely in line for another raise .
So they are on the same maintenance schedule as the resort water meters ? Same high level of calibration and accuracy ?
I'm highly doubtful that there is any maintenance schedule at all.
"Fire flow meter". What a great idea!! If your house catches on fire, the district will sell you water to put out the fire with!! That is a great racket, Lansky, Siegel, and Luciano couldn't have come up with a better angle! It's strange,I read about local politics and my thoughts drift toward topics akin to organized crime.
Why am I not surprised ?
I have heard that the rate 'discussion' went as expected with resorts being subsidized by the residents and the mayor allowing no one with an opposing opinion have their say.
Not true,even I was allowed to speak.
No it was rather that they did not wish to consider something that would make it fair to everyone. They could allow Ralph to speak but could not consider his concerns about his own water bill and that of his elderly neighbour on fixed income facing a huge increase in her water bill.
How does all this make for affordable housing in this town?
The proposed system of water rates has lower consumers subsidizing families with 2 children. Coincidence ?
Watergate 2 here folks.
Look away.
Nothing to see or question.
Look away.
Our government in Vaughn Palmer's words 'works for us' but not here in Tofino where it works for select groups.
Coincidence indeed.
People just don't understand.
smart growth is no growth.
sustainable development means no development.
attainable housing is no housing.
fair water rates are unattainable.
didn't you read 1984?
"There was no loss of revenue "
It is time for the Mayor to step down from her photo op position at the ACRD and do the job she signed up for and is paid to do. The water and sewage situation in our town is abhorrent. Resorts now run the town small business and residents are expected to fall in line. People who hold positions at DOT they are not qualified for, need to be moved on. Our town cannot afford such lack of wisdom and vision going forward. There should be a fixed cost 25% and a variable element based on volume to water billing. There should be two rates one residential one for business' anything else is descriminatory. Josie might be intelligent but she has shown little or no wisdom on this issue. Our public meetings need to show a little less civility to get the message clearly to those who do not listen to those who pay the bills. The Ecolodges and attached properties need to be taxed as the business which it is. Then the the mayor might begin to understand about paying your fair share of the burden.
What do I expect to happen...nothing due to lack will and head in the sand politics. Enjoy your award it only cost a few Million.
It is discriminatory for business to pay more than residents.
It is discriminatory for residents to pay more than business.
It is discriminatory that business and residential users have their rates determined by 'averages' rather than their actual usage.
Get rid of the rate groups and have everyone paying the same rate and billed on their consumption. That would be fair and not discriminatory. Those that use more would pay more and those that use less would pay less.
Council didn't need a paid consultant to figure that one out.
If there is nobody on the district staff able to figure that out for the mayor and council, we are in real trouble.
it's about water.... not about money. keeping the water rates the same for all users only means that resorts and a few other water wasters just pay more money. they don't care about the limited supply of water. the more you pay tho, the closer it brings us to a potential water crisis. but it might work. resorts etc. work at saving money too.
the answer lies in increased storage.
get a consultant to figure out the cost of construction of a 500,000 gallon water storage unit. so that will cost x number of dollars per gallon to construct a unit that will hold the equivalent of 1 1/2 day of water usage in a busy tofino. so attach an increment of this cost to everyone's current water costs per-unit and if it doesn't make it totally insane.... do something else to pay for the storage unit. I hate to say it but that might even trigger the cause for the development of small-scale organically grown affordable housing in youcluelet
affordably grown housing
Seems to me that this water issue, the lack of action on the water meter issue, the unfair application of water rates, and a few other occurances of late, have begun to make it more obvious to many that our "Miss Personality" mayor, might actually not be the selfless public servant that she holds herself out to be. Is Tofino merely a rehearsal stage for further political aspirations down the road? Provincial? Federal? Perhaps it's not about doing what's best for Tofino and Tofino's citizens..... perhaps it's more about cultivating an image, establishing contacts and a power base, and getting oneself prepared for better things down the road. I recall a few years before she assumed the office, and it was mentioned in this blog that perhaps someone from Raincoast Ed. Soc. might make a good contribution to local politics...... and someone commented "Beware of wolves in sheep's clothing". It's true, no one else wanted the job, or perhaps it was just a case of no one bothering to enter the "popularity contest" that politics is, instead of people voting for the candidate best suited to do the job.
The mayor can only do so much with the staff she has .....
That's true. The Mayor is an elected official. Her staff are supposed to do the heavy lifting.Instead they lift the phone to call consultants and engineers.What do you expect for 100k + ??
I'd expect them to be able to do simple math.
Simple math to figure out what to charge everyone for water.
Add up all the costs of delivering cubic meters of water to Tofino. The system servicing costs, the treatment costs, the pumping costs.
That is your cost of providing water per cubic meter.
Add 10% for bleep-ups
You now know what you need to charge users for water. Use more, pay more.
Want users to conserve? Raise the rates when needed for example in summer. The revenue from those that continue to use without conservation will average with the revenue loss from those that do conserve with the higher conservation encouraging rates.
Have a reasonable meter servicing and reading charge. The consultants figures showed the average charge for this around BC was $20. Instead of 4 times a year save money by reading meters and billing 3 times a year.
Alternatively only read the meters and bill the users whenever the required conservation levels increase or decrease and the council determined price per cubic meter goes up or down.
Didn't need a consultant for that. The district staff should have all those numbers at their finger tips.
One recalls a time decades ago when staff at Public Works were held accountable.When protocol was not followed the Superintendent was removed.It was a time before RMI money when council actually paid attention to sewer and water instead of Whistlerization.
Tonight council will ask sharp questions regarding the water meter scandal and they will demand answers.We will know exactly how much money was compensated by tofitians for these resorts and we will be refunded.No avoiding vague answers from staff will be accepted.Council will then continue to fire all underperforming staff at the financial, public works and community sustainability department who are a burden to the general public.
The new water rates are a plot to placate irate residents. Look we are 'giving you'45Cubic Meters of water enough for a family of 4. What that generous gift is going to do is sucker residents into complacency about their water usage and many will still be facing huge bills and wondering why the resorts are paying less than the cost of water production.
Single users on meters will be paying for more water than they actually use and have ever paid before. All while the resorts get water for less than the cost of production at Sharp road.
Council ask sharp questions? Good luck getting answers.
anon 9:27....I believe the quote was "beware of wolves in green clothing."
so what happened at the cow meeting ???
of course there is nothing about it on the mayors fb page !! (except for some Ralph mocking by Bruce McDiarmid)
9:27am ....I believe it was "beware of wolves in green clothing."
11:12AM... As Menno was the only member of the public in attendance at the COW meeting, you will have to ask him.
Let's get this over with and sell as much water as people are willing to pay for so we can finally run out and see how that feels.
then everyone will understand water.
there's an old story here about a fisherman who caught so many fish one day he sank his own boat. fortunately other boats fished him out of the water.
it's not exactly the same but I think you see what I mean. greed + ignorance will sink you... metaphorically or otherwise.
In thinking about this nonsense of a minimum flat rate for all users based upon the average consumption of a family of four it seems to me that the little old lady on a fixed income, the couple saving money to one day buy a house, and the conscientious water saver are all deliberately being charged for water delivery that they are not using.
furthermore it seems equally deliberate that savings on water delivery is passed on to the resorts for no charitable reason whatsoever unless oversimplification makes it easier that way.
don't forget though, resorts sell water in a roundabout way, so no water no resort
affordable housing is one thing. affordable services is another.
6:45 PM... if you read the report you will see that the numbers are based on the consumption for a household of 2.6 persons and not 4.
thanks for the correction 716. the exact number can't disguise the fact that a household of 1 appears to going to be billed for another 1.6 persons. how this is supposed to make things equitable only points to an aspect of pathological ineptitude that seems to permeate many things these days.
I'm not poking sticks at anyone faced with working here. I just can't see where working backwards from water bills (that in some cases are likely to be extremely wrong) to establish a water rate doesn't result in the delivery cost of water overall being awarded as a freebie to the larger consumers at the expense of the users at the other end of the scale.
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