As a result of questions and comments following our presentation, we decided to write a follow up letter to ensure we were clear with the questions we were asking of Council and to give us the opportunity to comment on various of the comments made by council. This letter is as follows;

Greetings once again,

I am writing to thank you for your time during last evenings Council meeting. I also wanted to provide you with the information I neglected to provide you with last night in terms of a contact name and address;
June Ross
#5, 3400-Rock City Road,
Nanaimo, BC
V9T 6E4
(250) 729-0185

I also wanted to take the time to encapsulate our questions with the hopes we will get some response to them. They are as follows;

1. “If Island Timberlands can refuse our group, many of who will be citizens of this community, access to the watershed, can they also refuse the City access?” The answer was to the effect “…we have a cooperative agreement with island Timberlands”. That did not answer the question at all! If there is some kind of agreement in written form between the City and Island Timberlands, we request a copy of this agreement and would ask that you ensure we receive it. We would also ask Council to find out whether, legally, Island Timberlands could deny the City access to the watershed.

2. “…Our City water pipes go through private land. Do we have a legal right of way that is shown on the land title of these lands?” The response….” I don’t know, but that is a good question”! This is an important issue and we’d ask for clarification. We believe Council needs to pursue these answers and we encourage you to do so, on behalf of the citizens of Nanaimo.

3. In January, 2007 a Water Supply Strategic Plan was done for the City by Associated Engineering. Under 5.6 of this document, one of the recommendations was for the City to review scenarios for long-term tenure of the watershed. This recommendation included assuming ownership of our watershed. What has staff done about this recommendation? Has any report been done as was suggested within this point of the document? If a report has been done, we request a copy of it as well.
Mr. Kenning made comment following our presentation that the costs of purchasing the watershed had been given to Council and it was up to them as to how this would be dealt with. I will take the opportunity to comment here. The report I referred you to, "Water Supply and Strategic Plan- Associated Engineers - January 2007", clearly states that a review should take place from a business case viewpoint. The review needs to compare the sustainability of the current cooperative management structure against the feasibility and costs of the City acquiring land ownership and monitoring the watershed lands on an ongoing basis". Has such review occurred? If not, why not? If so, may we please have a copy of this review?

I also want to comment on Councilman McNab's comments about off roaders going into our watershed. There has not been near the damage done by the off roaders as compared to Island Timberlands logging processes. Your employees, who monitor this area daily, tell us of a continual cleaning of the Jump Lake Reservoir and the damn after a rain because the rain causes huge mud slides. Mud slides only occur where there are no trees left to hold back the banks! This, is where the damage is coming from.

As you are all aware, many of the Forest Companies have become "land developers". This causes us huge concern, particularly given the fact a Forest Company literally owns our watershed. This just cannot continue, in our view, and regardless of Councilman McNab's comments, that in his 20 years the relationship between whichever Forest Company owned the land and the City has always been good, we all know that can change with the snap of a finger. We suggest more needs to be done to protect our watershed and water source. This entire scenario has been left for far too long and we humbly suggest, it is now time for Council to step up to the plate, purchase the watershed, and protect the citizens of this community. If a small community on the far west coast can step up and purchase recreational land from a forest company, surely the citizens of Nanaimo are worth purchasing our right to life....WATER!

We have taken Mayor Ruttan's words on approval for our tour and a call will be made again to Island Timberlands to see if their viewpoint has changed from our initial request.

In closing, I again thank you for your time and for reading this letter and hopefully responding within a time frame that would allow us to report to those attending our two day forum.

Sincerely,
June Ross
Sec - VIWWC
Editor - www.vancouverislandwaterwatchcoalition.ca

A call has been put into Island Timberlands concerning Mayor Ruttan's comments that Island Timberlands had told him the tour could take place as long as one of the Island Timberlands employees was on the bus. This was for "security and liability reasons". This was not what was said to us in our initital phone call with them. We are awaiting a return phone call from them to get clarification on their position.