Starland County fired off a stern letter to the Minister of Environment expressing concerns over water.
Water continues to be one of the most important issues for municipalities and Starland CAO Ross Rawlusyk has some grave concerns about some of the ideas presented at the Alberta Government’s consultation on water issues.
Last month the government held water “conversations” all over the province, including in Drumheller. Rawlusyk attended one such meeting with Starland Reeve Barrie Hoover in Red Deer on March 14. What shocked him the most is what that he felt the conservation was being steered towards a “Scottish Model” of operating water systems.
“In the Scottish Model of water, all water utilities would be taken away from municipalities across the board and given to a large conglomerate, and it would operate the water as a cost neutral utility, which basically means no granting and require it to make a profit,” said Rawlusyk. “In my mind that will double or triple the cost of water.”
Rawlusyk spoke out at the meeting expressing his concerns and the county followed this up with a letter to the Honourable Diana McQueen, Minster of Environment and Sustainable Resource development.
“Starland County is strongly opposed to any move towards the Scottish Model of water management as presented at the meeting we attended in Red Deer. We certainly don’t feel the Department did a reasonable job of presenting information, notifying affected participants or gathering useful information at the sessions held or through the on-line tool,” states the letter.
Another concern addressed in the letter was that many municipalities were unaware of the consultation, while others received invitations.
“At the Reeve’s meeting of the AAMD&C, the County of Wheatland asked for an indication of how many municipalities were aware of the consultation, and approximately 10% had attended sessions. Given the major impacts of the proposed “Scottish Model” we feel this is a poor consultation process,” states the letter.
Rawlusyk explains that Starland is unique in that many farmers have invested directly to water infrastructure, therefore have a direct stake in the system. Transferring the water system to a geographic management entity would not just be talking the utility out of the hands of municipality but the farmers.
He also makes the point that the consultation did not identify problems with systems today.
“I challenged them to tell me what was wrong with the way things are being managed now. They have no data on that,” he said. “We couldn’t see any impetus for change…are systems failing? Are people dying from water systems failing? There is no impetus.
“I felt almost attacked. They are proposing taking over a utility system without a major consultation with the people taking care of it now,” said Rawlusyk.
