Letter From Chris Lefevre

  Mayor Dan Law

District Councillors

District of Tofino

121 Third Street, Tofino, BC V0R 2Z0

Dear Sirs / Madame’s,

RE: Water Crisis & Concerns 2023

2023 July 14

 The July 6, 2023, letter from the Chief Administrative Officer addressed to the Tofino Long Beach Chamber of Commerce contains the following statement that appears to contain two completely contradictory concepts:

“As a proactive local government with a well-established emergency program, we began preparing for this in the Spring.”

Clearly on the current facts, your local governance has not been proactive. Tofino is in a rainforest. It is well known to experience some of the highest annual rainfalls in the country. There is no shortage of water. A proactive local government, with the opportunity of a virtually endless supply of fresh water would not have to deal with water shortages as an emergency. Indeed an “emergency” is by definition something unexpected, not a recurring annual or seasonal event.

I direct you to Walkerton, Fall of 2002:

The Honourable Dennis O’Connor was appointed to conduct an inquiry into the failure of the water supply system that occurred in the spring of 2000 in Walkerton Ontario. Walkerton’s drinking water system failed, seven people died and more than 2,300 people became ill. The municipality of Brockton was one of the many defendants in the ensuing litigation. The Justice addressed the roll of municipal governments as owners of municipal water systems generally and I attach an extract from the inquiry entitled “Chapter 10 – The Roll of Municipal Governments”.

The Walkerton case resulted in a class action that was settled. Between 2002 and 2019 in excess of $72 million was paid out to plaintiffs in that class action. These included business owners, whose businesses were impacted. There were 17 lawyers acting for the various public authorities involved in defending the class action. When the matter was wrapped up in 2019, the overall cost arising from essentially a single failure but with monumental health impact, resulted in costs and expenditures exceeding $200 million. It will be very obvious to the District, that with or without insurance coverage an event that gives rise to any similar type of claim would render the District insolvent.

In June 2023 the submarine water supply pipeline failed twice. I understand that the line in question is over 40 years old. In other words, the failure of the line is not so much a breakdown or malfunction, but instead is something, from an engineering perspective, to be expected, given conscious decisions over time to leave a pipe which no longer effectively provides a service, in place. A breakdown or malfunction is something that is unexpected. Known inadequacies do not fall in that category.

Similarly, there are many previous studies, reports, and reviews that point out the inadequate size and state of repair of the source reservoirs. Despite what appear to be obvious solutions, this critical part of your system goes unaddressed.

“Water is a unique local service. It is, of course, essential to human life and to the functioning of communities; in an urban environment, it is simply not possible to go without a communal water system. Water systems are also normally built around local water sources. As the Walkerton tragedy so clearly showed, the consequences of a failure in the water system tend to be most seriously felt by those who depend on it locally.”

“Municipal ownership, and the ensuing responsibilities, should provide a high degree of public accountability in relation to the local water system. In the event of mismanagement, municipal residents are in a position to hold those responsible accountable through the electoral process.”

I refer to this issue because also an alternative cause of a significant public health impact arises from the complete unavailability of water. If the 40-year old pipeline fails entirely, it is likely that the District supplies no water. Modern sanitary facilities simply cannot operate without water. Hospitals, schools, residences, and any food preparation activities undertaken in an urban or semi-urban environment without water raise the real and substantial risk of the outbreak of any number of epidemics.

 Given the knowledge and understanding that the District and you as members of its council have, in the event of losses caused by the lack of an adequate supply of potable water, the District will have a substantial liability. At the very least I am confident that a failure of the Tofino water system will result in a significant number of both large and small claims being made. The costs of simply dealing with those kinds of claims alone should be a motivating factor to making more immediate and more significant planning and financial decisions around urgent repair and upgrade of the District’s water system.

The potential for health effects of epidemic proportion and indeed the “Walkerton” scenario in my view leaves no room for any decision other than repeating the Chief Administrator’s own words. Tofino is “a proactive local government with a well-established emergency program”. This council must treat water inadequacies as an emergency, and treat them at their roots, commencing with very substantial storage upgrades and a pipeline actually capable of functioning so that the supply reaches your citizens reliably.

The Walkerton experience is a huge reminder of the responsibility and liability the municipality is facing.

Your letter to me of July 8th, 2023, I will only comment upon in this forum as to (a) a gross misstatement of fact:

a) “The District has never been better prepared and positioned to deal with a water crisis”–a gross misstatement.

and (b) a contradiction of your words:

b) “There is no getting around the problem that this is a wicked problem.”–Admission of the problem.

My earnest in this matter, apart from the exposures you face, is to bring about late action when a possible crisis is at hand.

Where are the independent engineers and contractors to mitigate and assist in solving the crisis at hand? Where have you engaged learned elders of the community to assist in needed short term, and long term, solutions? Why is the municipality not digging at Ginnard Creek for extra storage?

Where is the “safe harbour” for our community, when its water supply and system is on the precipice of collapse – the warnings have existed since 2006!

I trust the Mayor and Council will govern themselves accordingly, as to the content of this written advice, and what may emanate therefrom!

    Yours,

 Chris Le Fevre

cc: Dan Law, Mayor

cc: Al Anderson, Councillor cc: Ali Sawyer, Councillor cc: Tom Stere, Councillor

cc: Duncan McMaster, Councillor cc: Sarah Sloman, Councillor

cc: Kat Thomas, Councillor