You'll have to watch the video to spot what I mean. It's priceless!  

Here is another way of looking at Abbotsford's water use and future water needs. I have added some elements to Abbotsford's water use and future needs graph that sheds a different light on the problem and possible solution. 

As a business advisor, my reputation depends on making sure the people and organizations I am connecting my clients with are just as reputable. Early in my career that reputation got a black eye. By not checking out a vendor, prior to engaging him with a client----and, the client got stung. Since then, by always doing a little pre-engagment due-diligence, I've been able to save myself a repeat performance. But, my lesson learned is, always be wary... business services fraud is much more prevelent than you think.

Funding is one of the most critical parts of any entrepreneurial pursuit. Getting a project to that "next level" involves finding the organizations and people who can fund it.  But, before spending a lot of valuable time talking, emailing, sending documents to potential business advisors connected to funders, understand such relationships are fraught with peril.

One of the most common frauds is fee-for-service fund raising. This requires engaging for a fee individuals or organizations connected to the investment industry and providing a service of connecting you with those contacts. They find the funding for your business venture. Unfortunately, too many are incompetent and unable to follow through or outright unscrupulous liers. These engagements will waste your time, effort, and money. It's important to avoid them, but unfortunatly, they can also be hard to detect.

Many such scammers have been industry players in the past. One time at the top of their game, they have somehow fallen from grace. And now, still addicted to the deal, they pretend, continuing to play the game. Ex-players are especially difficult to discern. Because they've been in the business, they know the language; they know industry names; they can cite past successes and often have what appear to be credible testimonials... they're websites glow of success. But, in fact, they aren't able to do what they say and they can even fool seasoned entrepreneurs. But, though determining who's who can be difficult, it's important to try and by performing just a few basic due diligence steps, we can help protect ourselves.

Interestingly, the internet, though an easy platform such insidious people and organizations, also has tools that helps illuminate them for who they are. Here are a few simple cyber-sleuthing techniques and tools I've used to help weed out the baddies. I usually will spend 30-60 minutes on this, sometimes more, depending on what emerges. Even if they turn out to be perfectly legitimate, I am much better equipped knowing more about the person I am about to deal with.

First, review their online profiles such as Linkedin. Look for signs of inconsistency. Does their full career path and history hold tegether? Do they have a number of credible recommendations? If not, its a caution flag? Do they they use their entire name? It's amazing how many use initials or outright alias's. Do they have links to a credible website? Are there success stories or case studies there? Do they have credible discussions on the discussion forums like Linkedin? As you read, questions may begin to emerge. This is often good discerment talking to you.  

Next, do a Google search. Look for signs of positive or negative reputation. If they are reputable, they should turn up in other internet pages and should have some type of positive content to support their legitimacy. One such search I did recently, seemed positive enough, but as I read, I began to think, this sounds a little too good. It turned out my wariness was warranted, though that's content for another post.

Finally, if you do get to the point of contact, does their initial behavior or attitudes speak to their credibility? How is the phone answered? Do they seem to have a due process for qualifying you or are they too soon ready to help, before you've had a chance to establish your own credibility? Do they hesitate to give you a few references who will vouch for them?  Will they give you a reference for a client that didn't work out or there was a reference to determine how it was resolved? If they do, make it a point of checking them all.

These simple steps have helped me avoid some embarrasment and trouble. I recommend you try them. But, even if you do, remember these cunning people. It's still possible to be fooled. Here are a couple of sites that I always check. The Complaints Board and The Ripoff Report. 

You might be surprised to learn who turns up, but you'll never be sorry.

Richard

Pre Script Note to Readers: If you are reading this blog and agree then please do 3 things: 1st, Tweet, Like, Blog or Forward this to as many people as you know would be interested, 2nd, Add Your Comments to the form below to add your voice, and 3rd, Contact your Mayor and Councillors to let them know you are concerned. Email: Mayor and Council Office Phone: 604-864-5500

The Abbotsford/Mission Waste Water Treatment Master Plan, drafted by an outside consulting firm and published in April 2010, told Abbotsford’s city managers we must update our water treatment systems and install new piping from far away places to bring more water to the city. This all at a price tag of roughly $450,000,000. Adding full life-cycle accounting over some 40 years, will make the actual cost significantly more.

But, there are some amazing alternatives, progressive municipalities around the world are currently employing that are providing internal revenues streams that are virtually paying for most or all of the capital infrastructure to build it. Which means by using their waste resources more wisely, those cities (and their taxpayers) are saving millions upon millions of dollars. 

Today, March 3, 2011, at a presentation made to Directors of the Abbotsford Chamber of Commerce and a few city councillors by Sequel IRM, a reputable resource management consulting firm from BC, we discovered there are integrated ways managing waste resources, called Intergrated Resource Managment (IRM) or Integrated Resource Recovery (IRR) that, when applied, offer municipalities savings of $10's or $100's of millions.

Sequel offered Abbotsford city engineers and managers an opportunity to spend a little to take a more thorough look at this for Abbotsford, and our City's managers turned them down. 

So, wait, let's get this straight. Even after the controversy of mis-managed money for Plan A and Arena-gate, Abbotsford's brass turned down an opportunty to look at saving hundreds of millions of taxpayer's dollars? 

Elected officials, mayor and councillors, please. It’s for times like these that you were elected. We your taxpayers implore you. Please stand up to your city management staff and say stop, $450,000,000 is too much!  Within the next few weeks you are responsible for making some far reaching and very expensive decisions.  Now is the time to look at the alternatives, before it’s too late!

Richard Shatto

Post Script: And, you need to do it soon, because Council is making important decisions regarding this in the next couple or three weeks. 

The new waste management mind-set is still the same Waste = Cost and that has to change.

While I appreciate this Metro initiative to launch programs to recycle our organics, I'm dismayed there is no consideration of the "value" of the stuff we are throwing away. Indeed, our waste holds so much residual valuable that our City's engineers and managers should be scouring the globe for integrated systems and technologies that will put our organics and other trash resources to work for us. Doing so would provide opportunities for that waste to start providing cash flows into our city treasuries not out of them. If they don't, and continue their old mindset of "waste = cost", then we'll continue to pay to dispose our "organic gold" into landfills and now our latest disposal trend --- heaps of compost.

So, before you begin cheering for Metro's revolutionary recycling insights, realize not much has really changed. Mere composting, while admirable, is short sighted and still far too expensive. So, what's the better way?

An Integrated Approach to Resource Management is a much better way.

There is currently a significant study Metro commissioned to be done with the municipalities of the North Shore that looked at "best uses" of our waste "resources". This study is now completed and the report in the private hands of Metro. If Metro decides to make it public (still not imminent), it is going to show that our waste, if treated using a truly Integrated Resource Recovery or Integrated Resource Management approach (IRR or IRM), it will provide you and me -- taxpayers -- $1000's of millions of dollars. That's correct billions of dollars in REVENUES.

Private Companies know our waste is a cash cow, why can't our city managers?

The implications for our governments (and we the taxpayers) who keep raising our property taxes to pay for the host of services it offers (like garbage pickup and disposal, sewage treatment and water delivery) is enormous. A city the size of Abbotsford, applying an IRM/IRR model, has the potential to recover a billion dollars or more in revenue over the next 30 years. Alarmingly, many of our city's municipal engineers and city managers won't look at the IRR model in any depth. What that means to you and me is we and our children will keep paying. And, the most galling thing of all, if we continue the direction most our city planners and engineers are taking us, we continue to "pay" private companies for the opportunity to make two levels of profits from our resource. First for "tipping fees," which is a fee for the privilege of dropping our waste at their sites. Then, once tipped, they can now use our waste resource/product to gain additional profits. Is it any wonder there is a mad scramble today among waste management companies to get access to your's and my municipal waste? They know a cash cow when they see it. So, why can't our city managers, or at least those folks we elect every three years, see the folly of their ill-advised approach?

Write to your mayor and tell him to stop paying to dispose of our waste resource.

If you want your city to look for ways to not just lower the "cost" of disposing our waste, but to find ways to create revenue from it, contact your mayor and tell him it's time to get serious about IRM/IRR. Oh, and don't let him get away with telling you they are already doing it. Chances are his engineers have told him they are, but he's mis-informed. Ask him how much "revenue" the city is projecting get from the waste management program's they are looking at. Pretty good bet you won't be satisfied with his answer to that.