North Canterbury News: July 08, 2021

Water reform concerns remain
By ROBYN BRISTOW
The Government’s latest release on its
3Waters Reforms have failed to water
down concerns.
North Canterbury Mayors continue
to worry aboutbeing forced into the
reforms, the costs, how they havebeen
calculated and the hastetopush the
reforms through.
All three North Canterbury councils
will be part of aSouthIsland
organisation, apart from Nelson­
Marlborough.
WaimakaririMayor Dan Gordon
questions how the Government
workedout the huge efficiencies
available ‘‘given the proposalsays it’s
going to increase staffing by thousands
of people’’.
‘‘Our own financialsand modelling
doesn’t supporttheir underlying
argument and we are still waitingto
see the detailed financial modelling
and assumptions (beyond a
dashboard) that they’ve used,’’ he says.
Mr Gordon says until they receive
this, he and councillors can not have
an honestconversationwith
communitiesonthe proposals to make
an informed decision.
‘‘I remainextremely concerned
about the pace and urgency of this
reformand hope thisremains achoice
for our community to make.
‘‘Thisisapoint Istrongly made to
the Minister of Local Government
when we met two weeks agoand have
reiteratedsince.’’
Hurunui Mayor MarieBlack saysthe
Hurunui District Council chose to
engagewith the Governmentonthe
reforms to be betterinformed about
what the futurecostsof3Waters
Reforms mightbeinits district, in
order for thepeople of the districtto
be well informed aboutfuture
decision making.
‘‘Our decision to engage withthe
Governmentonthis issue,was based
on assurancesgiven by the
Government that the people of this
district would have the opportunityto
make the decision about opting intoa
new model or staying with the status
quo.
‘‘Forced nationalisation of the 3
Waters assets, which belong to the
Marie Black
ratepayers of this district does not
form partofour agreement with the
Government to engage,and if this was
to be the path takenbythe
Government it would be strongly
resisted by this council on behalf of
our ratepayers,’’ saysMrs Black.
Mr Gordonand Mrs Black are also
critical of the 3Waters advertising
campaign by the Government. Mr
Gordonsays it trivialises avery
importantmatterand doesn’t fairly
represent the realities of water
services and quality in New Zealand.
‘‘We found out recently the cost of
this campaignis$3.5 million which is
an outrageous waste of taxpayer
money,’’ says Mr Gordon.
Mrs Black says the Government
believes it has built acompelling case
nationallyfor 3WatersReform.‘‘It has
launched anationwide campaignto
sway the public sentimenttosupport
this reform.’’
At the sametime it released the
analysis conducted by the Water
InfrastructureCommission of
Scotland (WICS)ofthe data supplied
by localgovernmentregarding 3
Watersassets. Adetailed look at the
numbers suggests that for the Hurunui
districtthe caseisnot as compelling
as it appears.
‘‘Theanalysis is largely based on
extrapolation of Scottish conditions to
New Zealand,and theapproximations
Dan Gordon
fromlargelyurban areas in Scotland
do not necessarily hold true in the
rural Hurunui district.The analysis
alsoincludes someinteresting
underlying assumptions that do not
appear to be supported by our own
information.
‘‘Weare now working our own
Hurunui specific data into the WICS
modelling and this is starting to
presentaless compelling picture than
has been presented by the initial
modelling,’’says Mrs Black.
WaimakaririMPMatt Dooceysays
while there is need for reform, there is
areal riskthat the voiceofdistricts
likeWaimakariri will be lost in the
proposedmodel of four regional
entities,’’MrDoocey says.
‘‘How will the water assets of
communities like Waimakaririand
Bluff, some 600km apart, be
practically networked and merged
intoone entity? The result will be
large service organisations thatwon’t
worktogether or create any savings.
The lastthing Cantabriansneed is
morebloated bureaucracies.
Waimakaririrate payers face losing
local control of their assets that
they’vepaidfor overgenerations,
while being asked to footthe bill for
poorer­performing councils but
getting no guarantee waterstandards
will materially improve,’’ Mr Doocey
says.
Innovation Waste Kaikoura wins contract
Innovation Waste Kaikoura (IWK) has
been confirmedasKaikoura’s waste
contractor for the next five years.
The Kaikoura District Council approved
the awardingofanew contract for solid
wasteservices (refuse, recycling, and
otherwaste management activities) at its
meeting on June 30.
The decision means IWK willoversee
the closure of the Kaikoura landfill and
the transition to disposal of refuse outside
of the district,which has been brought
forward from 2024 to 2022.
It is intended that construction of the
transfer station required for this out­ofdistrict
disposal will be funded through a
component of user pays chargesfor refuse
disposal.
The council and IWK will be working
together over the nextfew monthsto
implement the changes to services
required by the new contract, including
providing the community with further
information on these changes.
The new contracttakeseffect on
October1and is for aterm of fouryears
and nine months.
NEWS
North Canterbury News, July 8, 2021
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