The Ganges Sewer System will not be expanding to include a connection to a healthcare housing project, as the Lady Minto Hospital Foundation (LMHF) has withdrawn its application and will instead improve that property’s existing septic system.
Over the summer, the Capital Regional District (CRD) board approved a bylaw to expand the Ganges Sewer District to include the parcel at 101 Bittancourt Road — the former Seabreeze Inne property fronting Fulford-Ganges Road, purchased by LMHF and slated for conversion into 17 units to house healthcare workers.
CRD staff had said the sewer system at Ganges has more than enough capacity to accept potential outflows from the Bittancourt property, as well as from any future connections along the line between it and the existing system boundaries.
And LMHF had hoped they could coordinate the new connection with the current Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure (MoTI) roadwork along Fulford-Ganges Road.
But the foundation’s cost was ultimately going to be too high.
“All in, they didn’t like the price tag,” reported Salt Spring CRD engineering manager Dean Olafson, responding to a question Thursday, Nov. 7 from members of the Ganges Sewer Commission. “So they decided to go back and renovate or rejuvenate their septic field and use that instead.”
LMHF board members confirmed the project’s manager had been directed to not proceed with the 300-metre connection project, despite what was characterized as “positive collaboration” with MoTI and CRD staff, Northridge Excavating Ltd. and MoTI’s consulting team for the Fulford-Ganges Road improvement project.
The expected cost grew significantly, according to foundation correspondence, due to several project parameters Northridge would have been required to follow, with the cost of making the connection growing from five per cent of the total project cost to more than 20 per cent.