RE: Funding need backs up new river sewer line (Mission Record, May 3, 2019):
It was shocking to read that Mission requires an additional $15 million to complete the sewer line crossing under the Fraser River.
How could the project have gotten so far without precise knowledge of the land costs, and how could Mission’s CAO be so certain that “the project will happen” without having the necessary funding and before environmental approvals have even been received?
Are we back to the waste of hurry and haste planning? This project seems to have been badly mismanaged, reminiscent of the $8 million in cost overruns for the Mission Leisure Centre in 2005.
Did we learn nothing from that costly mistake?
Given that the increase in capacity of the sewer line is primarily to service future growth of our community, developers, not citizens, should be paying the budget shortfall.
The manner in which infrastructure projects such as this are (mis)managed and financed should be of great concern to all of us, as this sewer line fiasco is just the beginning of Mission council’s plans for massive infrastructure spending to subsidize development in Silverdale and elsewhere.
Tracy Lyster
Mission