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BS adds up to 'no' vote

letters

The District is trying mightily to sell me on the new sewer deal, and I am getting the distinct impression I am dealing with the proverbial used car salesman. I can’t seem to get a straight answer to a direct question. I’m not interested in a lot of complicated explanations as to why this is the best deal on the entire planet and that life as we know it will cease immediately if we don’t take the deal.

I know one thing for sure – I have to pay $515, and that is up from $495. What I don’t know is how much of the $515 EPCOR gets, or what the part that they don’t get is for.

There are apparently 2,526 parcels paying $515 for 2011. According to the agreement, EPCOR will get $924,752 in 2011, $924,752 divided by 2,526 parcels = $366.09 per parcel.

Is $366.09 how much I pay EPCOR? That’s a lot of number two flushes.

I’m told by the district that out of the $515, I pay $278 for debt servicing. If I pay $278 for debt servicing, and $366.09 for poop, that adds up to $644.09, not $515.

Then there’s the fact that the district has thrown in about a quarter of a million for new stuff that we managed to do without up till now. That’s about $100 per parcel. There doesn’t seem to be any way to figure out how much EPCOR gets, how much the district gets, how much total revenue is collected, and what it is for.

It’s all enough to make me want to cut down on the fibre in my diet, and brings to mind the saying “if you can’t dazzle them with brilliance, baffle them with b...s....”

The one other thing I know for sure is that it all adds up to a NO on the petition.

Terrance Martin

Sooke