Stars misaligned

Too complicated?

Council rejects pipeline plan

Fear can be a useful reflex toward caution and against recklessness. But too much fear clouds rational thought and decision-making. It is hard not to conclude that a committee of council erred on the wrong side of handwringing last week over a now-defunct plan to probe the merit of sourcing Picton’s water from Lake Ontario as well as collecting and processing sewage from the west side of the Picton in a centralized facility in Wellington.

There were plenty of warning signs and many potential problems with the plan, and it had been thrown together quickly (by necessity the committee would hear) but council wasn’t being asked to approve the plan, nor even proceed down the path— rather it was merely being asked to add the County’s name to a list of potential interested parties for partial federal funding. It would be another year before they would have to commit themselves to anything.

But this proved too imposing a threat—so council shut the door on the federal funding opportunity and in doing so tossed away about two weeks of its staff’s efforts, several of whom had scrambled in recent days to pull together the plan in time for the deadline of June 15.

It wasn’t close. Only two councillors, Jim Dunlop and Barry Turpin, were prepared to venture down the path. A mix of potential hazards spooked the remainder of council.

Mostly the worries focused on the cost, who would pay and the implications of becoming indebted to a potential developer.

The story began a couple of weeks ago when the federal government announced the fifth and final allotment of its infrastructure renewal program dubbed P3 Canada—funding designed to stimulate investment by municipalities as well as the private sector.

To qualify for consideration municipal projects had to meet a list of criteria and ideally valued at about $50 million. Staff worked through a list of potential projects across the County. They concluded the project that most fit the needs of the program involved the expansion of the water treatment facility in Wellington, running a water pipeline to Picton and wastewater line from Picton to Wellington.

Staff explained that at least two of the projects were scheduled to be undertaken in the next few years—specifically the expansion of the Wellington water plant and the supply of water to Picton.

They reasoned that if they could get at least a quarter of federal government money they might get the remainder from developers in the form of an advance on development and connection charges. Three of the four developers they spoke with in preparation of their report indicated they may be interested in such an arrangement.

But there were too many unanswered questions for council’s comfort.

Mayor Peter Mertens noted that in order for the financing plan to work as proposed 300 new homes would have to be built every year in the serviced areas for the next decade—a prospect he finds unlikely since scarcely 75 new homes have been built in the entire County in each of the past three years.

“Eventually the burden of this debt falls on the users of the service,” said Mertens. “Ultimately they have to backstop this. The risk seems too great.”

Picton Councillor Bev Campbell worried about the consequences of inviting private sector firms into the business of municipal water and the risk of losing control of this essential service.

Fellow Picton Councillor Brian Marisett put a finer point on the concern. He worried aloud about the conflicts that might arise should a developer forward the County debt financing and later bring forward a controversial proposal.

“What if a development applicant is our mortgage holder?” asked Marisett.

Public Works chief Robert McAuley scramble in an effort to salvage the work that had been done to meet the deadline.

“Some of your questions won’t be answered until the next step,” explained McAuley. “We have a year to prepare a business case. Or we can find out that there is no business case and we can walk away.”

But by this time council was sufficiently spooked.

The County’s chief administrator, Merlin Dewing, made one last stab at leaving the door open.

“Council isn’t committing to anything,” said Dewing. “We have to do some of these things in any event. All this does is allows us to explore the possibility that if all the stars aligned we could take advantage of this federal funding. It isn’t a commitment to a project or debt—but rather a commitment to look at it.”

But by then it was too late. Council slammed the door closed.

At midnight Friday the final P3 deadline came and went with out a response from this muncipality. Meanwhile County officials filed away a couple weeks’ worth of work.

Perhaps they dodged a bullet.