Cowichan Bay firehall AAP needs another look
It’s not hard to figure out why the Alternative Approval Process passed for the Cowichan Bay firehall; the process was flawed in my opinion.
The AAP may have run for six weeks, during summer vacation period, but was hardly advertised. If you missed the original article in the Citizen, back in early May stating that the funding was going to be under an AA process, the next time you might have heard about it was when a single piece of paper was delivered by Canada Post to your corner mailbox in early July. I filled out the form and tried to send it to the email address, indicated on the form three times without success. I finally went onto the firehall website and sent it through their site. I wonder how many people had the same problem and just gave up?
I realize we need a new firehall replacement but the price for this plan is ridiculous. The town of Crofton is also replacing their firehall, with a budget of $4.8 million. They are also using an AAP to move it forward. North Cowichan has 28,675 eligible voters. Cowichan Bay has 4,500 eligible voters and is planning on a budget of $16 million to replace their firehall. Something isn’t right here. We’ve seen huge cost overruns on nearly every government project in the last few years. At the present assessed value, I would be paying $500 per year for 20 years. That’s $10,000 for the estimated repayment schedule. This AAP needs to be looked at again.
Chris Harvey
Cobble Hill