Yet Another Example of 'Information Denied/Democracy Frustrated'!

Are You Being Afforded a Reasonable Opportunity to Comment?

The following is a list of public documents which have come before Council w.r.t the Sanitary Sewer Collector System in Lantzville since the Municipal Sewage Collection Phased Implementation Plan was commissioned back in March of 2004. You will note that the vast majority of these documents come with the notation 'Report to be distributed/Staff report to follow', which is a nice/round-about way of saying that only Council will see that report before the meeting, and therefore, your opportunity to comment before Council makes their decision will be limited to whatever you can glean from the general topic contained in the Agenda, i.e., you will not be able to speak directly to information contained in the report. It also means that, since the reports are not included in any updated Agenda (or addendum), you will have to attend the District offices (M-F, 8:30-4:30) after the meeting in order to obtain a copy of the report.

Draft Sewer Collection Implementation Plan (Report from staff) CoW Agenda Nov. 1/04
Koers Report not included with Agenda Council Agenda July 10/06
Sanitary Sewer Collection System - re:... (Staff report to follow) Council Agenda July 10/06
Sanitary Sewer Phase 1, Stage 1 (Interceptor)... (Staff report to follow) Council Agenda July 24/06
Sanitary Sewer Connection System - re:... (Report from CAO) CoW Agenda Nov. 8/06
Sewer Collection System Phase 1 - Cost... (Report to be distributed) Council Agenda Nov. 20/06
Sanitary Sewer Collection System Phase 1
Sanitary Sewer System Phase 1 Stage 2 - Tender (Report to be distributed) Council Agenda Feb. 12/07
Establishment of A Local Area Service - re:... (Report to be distributed) Council Agenda Feb. 12/07

With respect to the Nov. 20/06 council Agenda item, here is a copy of the email which I sent to the District's Chief Administrative Officer, Twyla Graff:

Twyla,
Please excuse the lateness of this question but, although I consider it important, it is something which I have just now had the time to get around to asking. Could you please tell me why the report which was the focus of the referenced meeting was not available for consideration by the public prior to the holding of the meeting? As I am sure that you would agree, even if someone had wanted to appear as a delegation to the meeting, it would be very difficult for that person to make appropriate comments and pose relevant questions when they had not had the opportunity to read and digest the 'Sanitary Sewer Connection System - Financial Alternatives' report first.
As always, I thank you in advance for your prompt and kind response to my query.



Sincerely,

Hans J. Larsen

and to which I have yet to receive any kind of reply.
So, once again, the District is not going out of their way to ensure that Lantzville residents are fully informed on issues which will directly impact them. To let your fellow residents know what you think of this democracy-robbing approach and what it bodes for the handling of similarly 'contentious' issues in the future, just click on the "Comment' link below (you may have to register with Blogger first - its free and painless).