Editor, The Times:
So councilor Walker has gone to Vienna, Austria, for two weeks, at great expense to the taxpayers.
Was this really necessary, when there is a lot of information already available in B.C.? Quesnel is working on building a combined heat and power system in partnership with Terasen, BC Hydro and West Fraser Timber. Burns Lake has a community heating pilot project currently underway. Others include Community Energy Association of BC., Northern Rural Communities Green Heat Initiative, FVB Energy of Vancouver and a lot more.
All of these have done extended research into the topic of district heating by bio-energy. Western Economic Diversification Canada would have a lot of information available.
The smallest system has a current price tag of $23 million. This is a lot of taxpayers’ money. If we were going to spend the money to send someone all the way to Austria, why did we not send an engineer qualified in this field?
As I understand it, this Hands on District Heating Workshop 2011 is targeted at engineers, engineering firms and designers of biomass boilers and district heating, etc. There will be hands on boilers and heating systems to see the affect of adjustments and problems. The workshop will enable participants to consider all issues related to a biomass heating projects. You would have to be a engineer to get the full benefits from this trip. So why are they sending a local politician without any engineering degree? It is a waste of taxpayers’ money.
The only councilor to vote against sending Bert Walker was Stephanie Teare, all be it for the wrong reason. She felt that because Leslie Groulx had put so much work into this that she should be the one to go. Again Leslie Groulx may have put a lot of work into this but that does not make her an engineer. It seems as if we in Clearwater have a lot of politicians and bureaucrats who are on one big ego-trip - and we the taxpayers are paying for it.
Ruth Brown
Clearwater, B.C.