Water Safety or Windrow Clearing...?

I write a Blog and copy it as a Letter to the Editor. Then I write other stuff - sometimes political, sometimes personal. Days later I read my letter to the editor and realize ...Hey, that raises more questions.

In a phone conversation, I learned a man from Water is clearing the windrows and while that's happening, his regular job isn't being done. After I put the phone down I thought, “Wait a minute, that can't be good.” The guys from water are responsible for water safety. That's an ongoing daily monitoring function.

People died in Walkerton a few years ago because that job wasn't being done properly. A man went to jail because of it. It wasn't a politician though. Mike Harris did away with the Ontario Water Resources Commission as a cost-cutting measure but nobody held him responsible. Oh Dear Me No.

For years, The Ontario Water Resources Commission had been monitoring municipal water to ensureits safety Many towns did not have the financial resources to provide the necessary technical expertise. O.W.R.C. was a badly needed resource.

Since Walkerton, the province passed stringent regulations governing water treatment. Employees who fall down on the task can now be charged with negligence under the Criminal Code. Municipalities can and have been fined hundreds of thousands of dollars. Worst of all, public health is at risk if the job isn't done properly.

I needed to know what isn't being done in the water department while a technician is out clearing windrows.

So I called. It's not good. Because of an injury, the water crew was already short handed. Windrow clearing was assigned to them. Another technician had to be taken from the job. It's harder to get done what needs to be done to keep the water department functioning efficiently with two men short. They work shifts in that department.

Clearing windrows is a questionable use of a skilled resource. The hourly rate of pay is less. As well as putting water operations under stress, it's causing labour problems. The Manager of Works Operation Services and the Water supervisor are both spending administrative time dealing with the windrow clearing program and its attendant problems.

Windrows are left after the sidewalk plow as well as the road plow. Seniors with sidewalks expect two windrows to be cleared. They are created at different times.

Regional plows pass more often than municipal. Seniors living on Regional roads expect their windrows to be cleared every time the regional plow goes by. It all takes time. Time costs money. Time spent on one job, taken from another more critical operation, is not efficient use of time.

Without council awareness and without council authority, the decision to use or misuse employee time for this purpose as well as being poor management, risks public safety and it is fraught with potential for disaster.

Is anybody listening?