Referendum Need is Real

The following is being posted with the consent of the original author ...

During the past few months there have been letters skeptical about moving Millbrook water to a new Fraserville development. It seems clear that many are opposed in pushing the Fraserville development. If there were significant support, there probably would have been more letters in support. At the open house in October, many citizens posed questions. Our chief administration officer provided responses. One of these questions was, should we have a referendum and if not, why not? The response was, Infrastructure projects are investigated via the "Environmental Assessment Act" and not by referendum. It may be environmentally safe to paint all buildings in Millbrook pink. That doesn’t mean we should go ahead and do it. Even if an environmental assessment should conclude that the risk of taking water is "acceptably low", this does not mean we should do it, even if the assessment concludes it is okay (doubtful but possible). This is like saying people must donate blood because blood donation is regulated by some health act. Clearly blood donation is a matter of personal choice. Similarly, the matter of water removal is a matter of "community" (not council) choice.


I suggest pressing even further. We are on an expensive path to fund studies that will jump through hoops and hurdles to justify a water pipeline to Fraserville. We can find out via referendum whether we want the water pipeline. If the result is No, then we can save the expense of studies for something else to help the community. There was a referendum about resort development in Peterborough's Little Lake. To his credit, the MP for Peterborogh respected the outcome for that referendum. Why do we not have a similar say?

On a related matter, our family came back from a vacation in Germany. One thing that impressed me very much was the ability to move around in a large region with public transit. There was an extensive network of light rail transit that fitted in naturally with woods, fields and communities. Would money be better spent investigating how to build something comparable here?

Peter Spasov
Elgar Drive