REGINA – Citizens’ group Regina Water Watch has collected 24,000 signatures. Thursday, they officially filed their petition with city hall to hold a referendum on using a private public partnership to build the city’s waste water treatment plant.
“They’ve done their work collecting the signatures, now it’s my turn to do my work to validate them,” said city clerk, Joni Swidnicki.
The group needed to collect just over 19,000 signatures to meet the threshold of ten percent of the population based on 2011 census numbers. Late last week, the city requested the Minister of Government Relations Jim Reiter move that threshold to over 20,000 to reflect Saskatchewan health card information. He denied the request.
The signatures will still have to be verified by the city clerk, but the Water Watch said their own analysis shows they are valid and that the petition shows there’s widespread opposition to the P3 plan.
“It resonated with people,” said spokesperson Jim Holmes. “People were really concerned about this issue. The water system, the wastewater system, the environment, what we put back in that system, is important to people. I think those services are public and we’re getting the best value we can for our money.”
The city clerk now has 30 days to validate the signatures.
“The act is very specific in what I have to look for on each and every page of the petition. It will mean going line by line to make sure that each of the required elements are there,” said Swidnicki.
She will then prepare a report for city council on whether she’s determined the petition is sufficient. If so, council will have nine months to hold a referendum.
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