Promise betrayed

Shire Hall refuses to open up waterworks plans for reconsideration
COMMENT: RICK CONROY

It was a lie. From the outset. Shire Hall had no intention of ever opening up its spending plans to scrutiny. It was never going to allow Council, the public or its own Audit Committee to derail its plans for the largest infrastructure project in the County’s history. It would never allow others to examine the assumptions underpinning the massive expenditures.

The fix was in from the beginning. The deceit was exposed in full daylight last week.

To understand the extent of the lie, readers must cast their memories back to January. That is when Council awarded the tender for the trunk lines to carry water and wastewater from one side of Wellington to the other, under the Millennium Trail.

They did so against a wall of vocal objection from residents, community groups, a legal expert and a former council member. Council approved the trunk lines anyway—but, in a concession to existing water users, it agreed to a third-party review.

From the motion approved that January night: “that the Master Servicing Plan, Development Charges Background Study and Growth Forecast project scope and financing be reviewed against current economic and environmental assumptions.”

It was a small victory. By approving the trunk lines Council was committing about $42 million toward a plan already creaking under the weight of unanswered questions. But it was a win nonetheless.

The wild population growth assumptions relied upon in the Master Servicing Plan would finally undergo scrutiny. The bizarre expectations of commercial growth would be reviewed. The size of the expansion plans would be re-examined. By experts. Out in the open. Transparent. Accountable.

But in May, Council learned from senior leadership that this would not happen after all. Astonishingly, no firm was interested in undertaking this review. Twelve firms had looked at the assignment. Incredibly, none raised their hand to do the work. Magic.

There would be no third-party review after all.

But wait. Perhaps the County’s Audit Committee could do this review? Council consolidated around this fallback proposition.

But there was a catch. The Audit Committee was barred from recommending changes to existing plans or the massive regional water plant (already in the planning stages). It could not recommend changes to the scale of the works. Not the timing. Not the spending.

Shire Hall senior leadership and Audit Committee chair John Hirsch (councillor for South Marysburgh) wanted to ensure the independent members could not upset their plans. Instead of looking at the assumptions and growth projections to determine if the project still made sense, the Audit Committee was boxed in and permitted only to recommend how any mistakes or updated information would impact future water rates and development charges.

It was all a charade. Shire Hall was never going to allow a third-party review. They were never going to let outsiders look at their plans. Instead, they went through the motions. Pretending they were doing what Council had directed in January. And they hoped residents wouldn’t notice.

Then, the Audit Committee began asking uncomfortable questions during last month’s meeting. They learned that $30 million of proposed funding for the project had been conjured from thin air—that it was based on geography rather than any viable prospect or expectation. The consultants had simply filled a hole in their model.

The committee was getting too close for comfort.

So when the committee met again last week, senior leadership and Hirsch were ready. They weren’t going to let this group stray too far afield. They were asking too many questions.

Hirsch and Chief Administrative Officer Marcia Wallace met before Thursday’s Audit Committee meeting to figure out how to keep the meeting on track. They went so far as to prepare a motion in advance.

“Based on a conversation with the chair [Hirsch] and the nature of the questions raised in the last meeting, we tried to anticipate where a motion might go,” explained CAO Wallace. “To help get the conversation started.”

This point deserves emphasis: staff had prepared an outcome for the Audit Committee before the meeting occurred.

Staff don’t put motions on the floor. The CAO said so in the meeting. It is the sole discretion of the governing body. Staff are not members of the Audit Committee.

Nevertheless, there was Hirsch flailing around, looking for the committee to approve staff’s pre-ordained outcome.

CAO Wallace said she was only trying to be helpful. But the longer Hirsch asked for a committee member to take up staff’s motion, the more awkward— and revelatory—the shoehorning effort became.

Even Mayor Steve Ferguson didn’t know what to do with the smelly mess.

The staff’s motion didn’t make it to the committee table. Then, committee member Jane Lesslie tabled a motion. But before it arrived, it too had been altered by staff—to make clear that whatever the committee recommended would not impact current plans, tenders or spending.

The guardrails were highlighted in bright yellow highlighter to remind committee members of the limits of their consideration. It was not permitted to review the MSP or DC charges “against current economic and environmental assumptions” as directed by Council in January.

Instead, the committee’s input was limited to advising on how any mistakes it found would impact water rates and DCs in 2027. Its findings would only be used after the fact.

The Audit committee’s role, in this instance, was confined to merely measuring the impact of the errors and over-building and overspending to inform water rates and development charges in 2027 and beyond.

It was always a lie. Shire Hall waterworks expansion plans have never withstood scrutiny. It has never made sense. The numbers don’t add up. It has always been a fragile house of cards.

But here is the thing: Council promised a thorough review in January. Shire Hall reneged on this promise. Council must re-commit to this promise— before it spends another penny of ratepayers’ money.