To the Editor,

As the previous Councillor for Wellington, I was heavily involved in the business case for water infrastructure renewal, and the eventual solution.  Staff, consultants and lawyers have done an admiral job in trying to resolve an extremely complex file. 

Unfortunately, Rick Conroy’s weekly comments on the subject  are not getting challenged, and so the public seems to be slipping back into some old thinking and forgetting the problems and obligations we face as a municipality.

The irony is that we are surrounded by water, yet affordable access to it is arguably our number one issue as we look to the future.  There was going to be day of reckoning when we moved from well and septic to a municipal service.  And now that day is now upon us.  Those systems are worn out.  With no more capacity.  And since asset management was never a thing until recently, there are no healthy reserve funds.  Yet we have a Secondary Plan that obligates us to provide capacity to developers who bought residentially zoned lands in good faith, and will be motivated to get shovels in the ground once the economic climate pulls out of its current down cycle.

 Mr.  Conroy has provided a valuable service to the community for 20 years.  He has earned the attention and trust of many residents, and deservedly so. But the issues before us are too important for him to be the only strong voice on this.  

I hope you can continue to help bring some balance to the discussion.

Mike Harper

Wellington