Dear editor,
The bejewelled King Bob of Courtenay has come out swinging, immediately following up on his campaign promise of spending our tax dollars and making everyone happy.
With the official signing of the memorandum of understanding (MOU) between the City of Courtenay, Project Watershed, and the Komoks First Nations, the City of Courtenay’s taxpayers are now officially on the hook for the industrial cleanup of this Interfor owned property.
The shrewd negotiators managed to land a screaming deal on this property, and Interfor is laughing all the way to the bank. Someone is going to pay them for the land and the negative environmental liability on this property, which surely was worth many times more than the land value, and then use tax dollars to clean it up.
Let’s see how far the $6.5 million budget goes when the years of poor environmental practices are unearthed, along with buried heavy equipment and tons of chemical-soaked soil and concrete. Not to mention the environmental containment required to even break ground in this sensitive area.
While this is a very noble project, it is laughable that this cleanup is being funded by Courtenay’s taxpayers and not paid for directly and in full by those that created this liability.
Big win for Interfor, big mistake for Courtenay taxpayers.
Jeffrey Hudson,
Cumberland