$60,000 - Penalty or Cost Of Business?

 

A $60,000 “penalty” is not a water limit

Nanaimo residents are being told not to worry about the proposed East Wellington data centre because water-use limits have now been written onto the property title.

That sounds comforting — until you read the fine print.

Yes, the covenant sets limits. But the issue was never whether City Hall could write numbers on paper. The issue is whether those numbers mean anything once the project is built and operating.

The covenant says the site is not supposed to exceed specific water-use thresholds. Fine. But what happens if it does?

From what the public can see, the main hammer is a $60,000 annual rent charge that stays suspended unless the City decides the owner is in breach and elects to activate it. For a business of this scale, $60,000 a year is not much of a hammer. It is a rounding error.

That raises the obvious question: if extra water is worth more than $60,000 a year, what is the real deterrent?

Worse, the covenant itself says the City’s rights are “permissive only” and that nothing in the agreement obligates the City to enforce it. Read that again. The public is supposed to take comfort in a limit the City is not actually required to enforce.

That is not a warm and fuzzy.

The City may say it can seek court action or withhold permits. Maybe. But this project is being built in phases. Once part of it is up and running, are citizens supposed to believe City Hall will easily move to choke off water to an operating data centre? That seems doubtful.

And then there is the political piece. This latest approval did not go to Council for a vote. It was handled by staff under delegated authority. For a routine permit, maybe that is fine. For a high-profile industrial project with ongoing public concern over water, it leaves a bad taste.

This is not anti-development. It is pro-accountability.

If Nanaimo wants to approve a data centre, then approve it honestly. But do not tell the public there is a hard water cap when what may really exist is a modest annual fee and a hope that no one pushes the boundary.

A real limit is enforced.

A fake limit is just a price.