Thursday, July 03, 2014

Colliery Dam Technical Process Needs Scrutiny


 boogie man

Note: The following first appeared on June 4, but is well worth repeating, especially in light of the recent decision by the CDPPS to withdraw from the process saying they do not find it a credible process.

Last year a seismic event was going to wreak unimaginable havoc on Harewood ... remember??

Turns out that just wasn't supported by the facts.

Now the new Boogeyman is a flood that might occur, maybe, perhaps......

For crying out loud, doesn't the brain trust at city hall have better ways of wasting tax dollars than to keep trying to fix a non-existent problem? Surely they must have some golden parachute they can pack with more tax dollars?

Are the bureaucrats at city hall and the Dam Safety Branch just determined to blow off millions of tax dollars to protect us against an event with nearly a zero chance of ever happening, because they made so much noise about it last year?

Think about it. Last year city hall turned the city of Nanaimo nearly upside down trying to remove the two dams in Colliery Dams Park because they posed such a threat in the event of an earthquake. Now it turns out, that threat does not exist. This is after they put up more flood warning signs in a few blocks of Harewood, than are posted on the west coast in the tsunami zone. They also installed a siren at John Barsby, likely to try and appease Jamie Brennan, who was threatening to sue to city if they didn't remove the dams. Leading the charge was his wife, Councillor Brennan who was advocating long and hard to have the dams removed.

Now that a seismic event is no longer the imagined Boogeyman, how can city hall waste even more tax dollars?? Let's pretend that a flood which 'could' happen in thousands of years is the new threat to the peace and safety of Harewood. That should justify the wasting of millions and millions of more tax dollars, which does seem to be the primary purpose of those in charge at city hall.

Why Does Harewood Get Such Preferred Treatment?

If this mythical flood should ever really happen, why are we willing to invest millions and millions of tax dollars to see the Colliery Dams remain intact, when the rest of the city will be flooded beyond redemption?

What of Westwood Lake, Long Lake, Nanaimo River or the Millstone to mention nothing of our over run storm sewer system?

For crying out loud, city hall, give the taxpayers of Nanaimo a break, and give us some credit for being able to think critically. This whole drama has been a waste of misdirected tax dollars from the beginning.

The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary. H.L.Mencken
 







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