The Seaterra sewage project in Victoria continues to spin out of control, and now even their highly paid communications people can’t keep the message straight.

In the Times Colonist Feb. 15, Seaterra program director Albert Sweetnam pooh-poohed (See what I did there?) our report that the program will be tens of millions over budget due to inflation:

The Canadian Taxpayers Federation, in its recently issued report, is incorrect in its calculations concerning Seaterra program costs. The budget is not "nebulous." The Seaterra program's $783-million budget includes inflation costs, the construction of the treatment plant, resource recovery centre, pump stations and conveyance-system upgrades. The CTF's report is erroneous and has added inflation to a budget that already includes inflation.

Sorry, Sweetnam. The inflation estimates you are referring to is for the inflation occurring mid-project, assuming a 2010 start. But your budget uses cost figures nearly 4 years old and hasn't accounted for inflation in those 4 years.

Also note that he did not comment about costs on the member municipalities, probably because he knows our numbers are correct. 

Even if you take Sweetnam and Seaterra at face value, they flush (See what I did there? Man, I love sewage puns) their argument in today’s Times Colonist on Esquimalt’s delay in approving the new plant:

Representatives of Seaterra, the civilian commission overseeing the $783-million sewage treatment project, estimate costs are mounting at a rate of $1 million every month the project is delayed.

So maybe inflation is a problem, after all.