Visibility

For more than a century, Wellington managed its own affairs. The village council managed the streets, the electricity distribution network and its waterworks. It cleared snow. It built sidewalks, parks, docking facilities in the harbour, and a beach. It built and rebuilt an arena. There were challenges and hardships along the way, but the village managed. Then in 1998, village decision-making was swept away in amalgamation. In the name of progress and efficiency. To save money.

The village council was replaced by a single representative around a crowded table of 16 folks bringing with them issues stretching from the lighthouse at Point Traverse to the bridge at Carrying Place—and 1,000 kilometres of roads in between.

One day Wellington was making its own choices, driven by the needs of village residents; the next day, it wasn’t. Bad enough, for sure. The problem is the chasm is widening.

As County business gets more centralized and complicated, the choices that directly affect our lives and our community continue to recede from our grasp. As power is increasingly cloistered in Shire Hall, resentment and apathy naturally follow. Meanwhile, the bureaucracy gets thicker and broader—new fanciful roles are created, seemingly quarterly, to manage this more sophisticated organization. These folks tend to be guided more by regulatory compliance— set by governments even further away—and liability exposure rather than residents’ needs or ambitions.

It was likely inevitable, in this arrangement, that the bureaucracy would come to resent the second-guessing from residents and column writers—particularly when they fail to acknowledge or understand the complexity and weight of the decisions being made on their behalf. The temptation to recede within the walls of Shire Hall is seductive and ever-present.

I suspect former village council members wouldn’t recognize local government as constituted today. I doubt they would comprehend how it spends five times more to serve the same number of residents.

That brings us to May 24. The date conjures up the unofficial beginning of the summer season in Prince Edward County. But it takes on special significance this year. Maybe. I don’t know for sure. Not for lack of asking.

Here is why it might be.

One developer has tied up all of Wellington’s remaining waterworks capacity. No other builder is permitted a single house until the new water tower is commissioned, new pipes are installed under the Millennium Trail, a new equalization tank rises out of the ground, and waterworks plants are built. (We are still several years and many millions of dollars away.)

How did this happen?

We traded control of our village’s growth in exchange for money the developer would have paid in any event. Just sooner.

The developer acquired Wellington’s waterworks capacity in exchange for agreeing to pay fees upfront rather than as it went along. Shire Hall proposed this deal because the waterworks expansion will cost more than $100 million—money the municipality doesn’t have. This arrangement may help finance the massive waterworks upgrade. It may yet prove to be a deft financial manoeuvre, but the risk of bad outcomes is all that is visible now.

It was hoped four builders would participate in the deal—ensuring competitive pressure that could be wielded to nudge timelines, better designs, diverse housing formats etc. But two developers opted out immediately. Of the remaining pair, one sold his holdings to the other. Then there was one.

Here is the tricky bit.

The deal was signed on November 24, 2021. My reading of Clause 3 Section c) indicates that if a subdivision agreement isn’t reached within 18 months, the County may “allocate servicing capacity” to other owners.

At least four other builders are waiting in the wings in Wellington. They have well-developed plans to construct more than 400 units—much-needed townhomes, apartments and condominiums. Are they real? Are they ready to go? I have no insight.

What is clear is that one developer has captured the village’s building capacity. It holds the cards. Meanwhile, we push ahead building shiny new pipes and pumps to serve them—if and when the developer chooses to build homes here.

The eighteen-month deadline arrives next Wednesday. It seems the developer won’t meet this deadline. Then what? Will Shire Hall invoke its right to reallocate waterworks capacity as per the agreement? Will the County open up waterworks capacity to the builder wanting to build a 20-unit apartment block at the foot of Prince Edward Drive? Or the 96 townhomes at the top of Maple Street. The mix of homes and townhomes north of the Legion?

I don’t know. Again, not for lack of asking.

In March, your columnist wrote to Shire Hall asking explicitly to know the impact of the May deadline and the implications of it for reallocating waterworks capacity in Wellington. Shire Hall didn’t answer the question, but instead reiterated that “Kaitlin has first access to the expanded capacity before the plants are built.”

The residents of Wellington—also every County waterworks customer—have much riding on the outcome of this deadline. For sure, Shire Hall is managing an array of dynamic operational and legal issues that may not lend themselves to minute-by-minute scrutiny. Yet Shire Hall has an overriding responsibility to taxpayers and waterworks customers to be transparent. And accountable.

We seem to have gotten a long way away from home.

rick@wellingtontimes.ca