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The Village of Pemberton (VOP) is gearing up to build 100 new housing units as part of its obligations under the $2.7 million federal Housing Acceleration Fund (HAF). Council heard from staff at its Dec. 10 meeting about the VOP's water needs as the area prepares for new developments.
"The common themes throughout these initiatives are resiliency and capacity," said planner Colin Brown. “So, understanding the condition of our systems and making sure that they have capacity for future growth."
Council heard about planning for housing-related infrastructure, facilities and services—the third of eight HAF initiatives—on Dec. 10, specifically as it pertains to water management. The VOP received an update on five projects:
- Village-wide water and sanitary system study;
- Wastewaster treatment plant (WWTP) assessment;
- Sanitary lift station condition and capacity assessment;
- Well condition and site exploration assessment;
- Sanitary inflow and infiltration study.
On the village-wide water and sanitary system study, action items include doubling the width of water-main pipes in future road work, improving the Highway Yards water system, introducing pressure regulation in the Hillside neighbourhood, replacing asbestos-concrete pipes with more durable materials, ensuring water supply for future growth, implementing an inflow and infiltration reduction program, and conducting monitoring at key sites.
The next project found the WWTP is at 70 per cent of hydraulic capacity, leaving only 30 per cent to handle new development. Staff says more data is needed before upgrade options can be presented to council, but the VOP is in an “ideal time to start talking” about upgrades.
The third item analyzes Pemberton’s nine lift stations—a pumping station that moves wastewater from lower to higher elevations.
Brown highlighted the Highway 99 and Poplar Street stations as being particularly important. The two stations carry the bulk of wastewater, and are due for replacement “either within five years or with development.”
Items four and five are still in progress and expected within the next couple of weeks.
Pemberton public a no-show at council meetings
Mayor and council also heard from staff about public attendance at meetings.
A report from staff found attendance for the last year ranges from zero to 15 participants, with the average being about four people per meeting. Meetings held later in the day enjoyed generally better attendance.
The report also noted a correlation between council hearing matters of housing and higher attendance among the public.
On the question of potentially shifting council meeting times, Mayor Mike Richman noted night meetings often have councillors feeling the long days, which the report says risks lowering productivity.
“We feel the days are long when we go into night meetings [and] there's only an extra person or so that's attending," noted Richman. "Should we just shift them all to a daytime meeting?”
The problem with that, said Councillor Jennie Helmer, is it could preclude people with a day job from participating in council.
“If everything was shifted to a 9 a.m. for me, personally, there's no way I can take every Tuesday at 9 a.m. off," she said. "It's impossible for me and my situation."
“I do think that that will impact the ability and the interest of people to participate [in future], because it is a day away from work.”
The staff report also underscored why attendance by the public and devoted time from councillors matter. Municipalities bear the brunt of key governance issues; increasingly, the responsibility to manage issues like climate change, natural disasters and housing affordability falls to municipalities. But without the resources of provincial and federal governments, cities need to be careful with how they allocate their scarce resources.
Council ultimately voted to keep meetings in the evening—partly to preserve the higher-than-average evening turnout had and partly to make sure council remained feasible and appealing for current and future councillors with full-time day jobs.
