There’s a big debate coming up at Council on August 27. 

Some debates suggest a crossroad: a choice must be made; only one road can be taken. Others feel like a precipice. Go over this edge, and you are not coming back.

The contentious motion concerns the decision to build not just a new Wellington Water Treatment Plant, but a regional one that can also replace Picton’s. It moves to commission the design for a regional plant. Designs are expensive. There’s no point commissioning one unless you plan to use it. In this case Rick Conroy is exactly right: one step will lead to another. If you commission a design for a regional plant, it’s because you plan to build a regional plant.

Why is this a good idea? There are many reasons, but I will try to be brief. 

Wellington’s Water Treatment Plant is failing. The 2021 Master Servicing Plan showed it only functions at half its rated capacity. Every time it rains it overflows and dumps untreated water into the lake. (It rains more and more often now because of climate change.) It also has little more to give. There is minimal water allocation left in Wellington, enough for about 300 homes. That is not enough water to have on hand. Legally, a municipality must have enough capacity for three to five years. That 300-household allocation is, further, already committed, reserved to Kaitlin for Cork and Vine. The shortage is preventing other home-builders from even getting a foot in the door.

These are the realities. They cannot be wished away. They cannot be paused indefinitely. Or even at all.

Meanwhile, Picton’s WTP needs replacing by 2032. Picton, too, is close to running out of water allocation. It has maybe five years left. Developers there too — Hilden Homes, Port Picton Homes, and those at Base31 — are competing for its remaining water service capacity, the equivalent of about 2200 homes. Current development applications represent 5400 homes. Do the math. There is maybe just enough to serve till trunk lines connecting Wellington to Picton come running down the Millenium Trail, bringing water pumped from a single regional plant and pulled from from an intake pipe that extends deep into the lake. Yes, it’s an ambitious plan. Water drinkers across Picton and Bloomfield would be delighted to have their water coming from somewhere other than Picton Bay.

A separate new Picton WTP is estimated at $95 million. Two plants are, naturally, far more expensive than one, both to build and to maintain. The regional option clocks in at over $150 million. But it will be able to pull in development charges from across the key cluster corridor as well.

Another major piece of the puzzle, one that also connects Picton and Wellington, is projected water demand, linked to development and growth. A large part of every Environmental Assessment and Servicing Study tracks growth rates, makes projections, and notes how many new housing units are in the works. The Wellington Master Servicing Plan of 2021 warns clearly: “new housing developments will stimulate growth rates significantly above current levels.”

More houses mean more people, both those drawn to the more affordable housing here than in cities, and all those who wanted to stay but were priced out. There’s been an exodus of 10,000 people from the County in the past ten years. That’s alarming. Housing is sorely lacking, whether affordable, rental, attainable, of just plain available. Build it and they will not just come, they will also be able to stay.

No houses can be built, though, unless the County puts major, required infrastructure in place. That infrastructure is needed no matter what. At the same time, there is a long lineup of developers here, and they have made it clear they will pay for the water infrastructure they need to build. They are offering up-front payments, looking to get in on development charges agreements, and competing over how quickly they can submit their housing applications to secure the last available water supply.

Nonetheless, one gets the sense that all these facts are beside the point. They speak for themselves, perfectly clearly, and yet they don’t seem to matter. Because the real issue is not whether we need new infrastructure — we do. The issue is whether we want the growth and development that will pay for it. And there, my friends, is the rub. Some very loud voices do not. They may want a functioning WTP, but they do not want to pay for it with people moving here. New people. More people. Any people.  

The expanded water capacities will serve new homes and new residents as well as the existing ones. The County is managing growth to get sorely needed and very expensive long-term infrastructure. Those opposed to new housing and just plain newcomers have found a strikingly effective way to stop new development: start a war over the hundreds of millions required to pay for that infrastructure. Pretend the development is not coming. Tell a vulnerable, fixed-income, largely retired, rate-paying population that this is a disaster in the making, and that they are the ones who will be on the hook. That their water bills will rise exponentially. That 6,150 beleaguered ratepayers, who already sustain six separate water systems, are going to be saddled with $300 million in debt. Forever.

Perhaps it’s time somebody made an argument that addressed the sheer importance of building and maintaining reliable infrastructure — if the floods in Toronto this month have not done that for us already. Or the burst water mains that stopped water service altogether in Calgary this summer. We need to champion state-of-the-art filtration systems, stable water pressure, endless capacity, and functioning, clear, muck-free pipes. 

And let’s hear it for development, too. New housing, of every kind: “tiny,” if you want, or just plain small. Mixed, stacked, back-to-back, up-and-down: bring it on. New roads, new neighbourhoods, new boardwalk, new schools, new shops, new barracks, new Drill Hall, new museum, new parks, new historic hotel, new hospital, new jobs — all the things development and people and vitality bring. Bring them on. Enough of this muddled, fear-addled, rejection of the future. That’s a dead end. The road to nowhere.

We need to work together. We need to plan and to manage, but also to welcome the myriad opportunities growth presents. It’s already happening all around us, and it won’t be stopped. 

This week’s issue explores the waterworks debate. We have attended the community meeting, spoken with one of the partners at Base31, where the shovels are definitely in the ground, fact-checked the questionable claims, and talked up and down the town. Have a read, think it over, and ponder your choice. It’s important.