Fiddling while Rome burns

MANY QUESTIONS LEFT UNANSWERED



Public Consultations, aptly called “Open Houses,” were held by Saskatoon Light and Power this week. An Open House reminds you of what? An effort to sell you a house or condo? Or the opening of a new facility, like a new hospital or a new car dealership? Does it make you think of a forum for public discourse on a controversial issue like replacing the contemplative Weir and Island Bird Sanctuary with a combined hydro dam and white- water park? Not really!



Local residents were furious that they had no opportunity to speak publicly about their views on this development. Instead, an assortment of pro-hydro-white water advocates stood at different “stations,” in front of vague panels about the glories of the joint projects, providing what they hoped would be soothing answers to people’s questions. This way, people did not hear one another’s questions and did not have a chance to find out what their neighbours and fellow citizens were thinking. This was billed as a “new way” to do public consultations.



The Open Houses and Stakeholder Meetings left many questions unanswered.



1. Why did the concepts offered to us as different options for the weir development all show the hydro dam and white-water park coexisting in the space now occupied exclusively by fish and birds? Although Saskatoon Light & Power representatives grudgingly acknowledged that the hydro development could happen without the white-water park, no where was this possibility illustrated on any of the brightly coloured panel boards.



2. The baseline environmental report found that a water sample they took from the river detected elevated arsenic levels, levels above those considered safe for humans. If we are going to have kids tubing in the river, how are they going to be safe from coming into contact with this substance?



3. Recently a raw sewage leak that spilled into the river went undetected for some time. How will we warn people, especially children, to say out of the white water park if the water isn’t monitored continually?



4. If storm water runs into the river and raises the levels of bacteria in the river above levels safe for recreational use of the river (as has been documented in Calgary’s Bow River, for instance) how will that be measured and how will adults and children be warned to stay out of the river?



5. If a water park is built, where is the funding coming from and who will receive the revenue it generates? If funding is from the province, from what budget source and why? When asked, ‘who will pay for the operation of the White-Water Park?’ Saskatoon Light and Power officials said the provincial government is likely going to pay for the Park to be constructed—though they haven’t officially committed to doing so—but they don’t know who will pay for ongoing operation of the park, though it could be the City.



6. What will be the noise level be like when large sporting events are held at the White-Water Park? How will this affect City Park residents? Birds on the river island?



7. How much lower will projected hydro dam revenues be if we have several years in a row of very low flows in the river, as we did in the drought years in the 1980s?



8. Why was no Need Assessment or survey done to ascertain whether or not the people of Saskatoon want to pay 15 million dollars for a white-water park that will mostly be used by highly skilled and specialized sports enthusiasts?



9. Why are we paying 15 million dollars for a white-water facility that will only be used four months of the year? If anyone uses it in colder weather, they will a handful of devoted white-water enthusiasts.



10. Will kayaking and tubing and surfing in the South Saskatchewan River—called Canada’s most threatened river by a recent World Wildlife Fund Report—make Saskatonians look like we are fiddling while Rome burns?