Given how much is at stake, it's difficult seeing this one play out any other way.
When the Tsawwassen First Nation unveiled a string of ambitious development projects following signing the province's first urban treaty, skeptics were quick to point to the many obstacles standing in the way of turning those ideas into reality. The magnitude of what's envisioned produced scoffs for a variety of reasons, but what many doubters kept coming back to is the lack of sewer capacity to service all that's been planned.
It's hard to believe that something so basic, something that's pretty much taken for granted when development is considered these days, could somehow derail this train.
The reason it's hard to believe is because it's never going to happen.
There's no way senior governments, the ones that love to point to the TFN agreement as proof the treaty process works, are going to sit idly by and watch these economic initiatives fail simply because the toilets at the mall won't flush.
As much as there isn't adequate sewer capacity at the moment, it just doesn't make sense that something so utilitarian could prove to be the downfall of everything on the drawing board. It's incomprehensible to think the process would have got this far if sewer access was anything more than a speed bump.
I suspect the fact federal legislation is in the works that would compel local or regional governments to provide First Nations with water and sewer services is merely coincidental, but should it pass, it would pave the way, quite literally, for the TFN to get the servicing it so desperately requires.
Even if the legislation is defeated or delayed, I imagine the powers that be will demand Delta and/or Metro Vancouver let the First Nation tap into the existing system. Talk all you want about Delta's limited capacity or municipal ownership of the infrastructure, but I don't believe such sentiment will do any good if it gets to that point. And I don't think we're too far away given the development timetable as well as the fruitless efforts thus far to negotiate access to the pipes.
Rather than building an entire sewage treatment system, it has made sense all along for the TFN to utilize the existing one serving the Lower Mainland, with the obvious caveat that being a good neighbour means you don't place a financial burden on adjacent taxpayers.
We're not there yet, but it's almost a certainty we'll get there soon enough.
