Comment
No. Thank you.
Give it back. Should the province approve an $18.3 million grant for County waterworks expected this month, I pray, as a water customer, Council says: No, thank you.
It is not as though the water utility couldn’t use the money—it can—but rather that Shire Hall is likely to hold up this pittance as a reason— the reason—to push ahead with spending $300 million—nearly all of it on the backs of a few thousand waterworks customers.
Rather like cell phone companies giving phones away for free in exchange for a twoyear contract—trading some cash today to lock customers for the long term. Or the casino offering discounted steak dinners to lure the punters into dropping a few hundred dollars at the tables. Except the hook at the end of this $18.3 million line is a whole lot more damaging to unsuspecting water ratepayers.
On the other hand, Queen’s Park will be thrilled to see massive new infrastructure built in this rural community— on the backs of water customers. It wasn’t long ago that the federal and provincial governments paid the bulk of infrastructure costs in rural communities. Consecon and Wellington waterworks were funded mainly by the province. More recently, the Picton sewage treatment plant’s original budget was twothirds funded by senior levels of government (that is, until cost overruns overwhelmed estimated costs. You are still paying for that fiasco.)
So Queen’s Park loves this Shire Hall arrangement—getting away with paying just six per cent of the County waterworks is the downloading bonanza provincial mandarins dream of.
This community is becoming a case study—in the worst possible way. Prince Edward County is showing up in other municipalities slide shows as a cautionary tale—of what can happen when bad planning and bad decisionmaking collide. See our story on Quinte West’s development charges update on here.
Still, Shire Hall is barrelling forward with waterworks spending. Heedless to the warning signs. It has built a water tower—40 per cent over budget. It built an overflow tank, unbudgeted in the 2021 plan. It will begin digging deep trenches under the Millennium Trail—and soon meet unforgiving bedrock all the way down—to install new water and sewer lines from one end of the village to the other. It will approve a sewage pumping station in the coming weeks (about $7 million), again unbudgeted in the 2021 plan. So far, Shire Hall has committed about $44 million to this wasteful boondoggle. But it’s not yet a quarter done. The big stuff is yet to come.
Shire Hall has scrapped its four-year-old plan to build a new water plant for Wellington (without ever making the case for its replacement). Instead, it is now determined to erect a new super regional water plant in Wellington to serve Picton and Bloomfield. If it gets a new Picton- sized water plant, it will need a pipeline to get the water there. And more pumping stations. Then, there is still a new sewage treatment plant to build in Wellington. And connection lines. And leaks to plug because the pressure is greater. And so on.
If you give a pig a pancake, he’ll want some syrup to go with it.
But wait, what about the third-party review of the population assumptions and plant condition? Wasn’t that promised in January? Didn’t Council commit to a second look? Surely everything is on hold until that review happens? Right?
Nosireebob.
Shire Hall couldn’t find anyone—or any firm—to do this work. So it shovelled the task over to its audit committee. Out of sight. Out of mind.
The audit committee is comprised of well-meaning folks who have been given an impossible task. And no time to do it. They have met just once to consider this assignment—to get their bearings. Meanwhile, Shire Hall is plowing ahead. Oblivious. It will ask Council to approve the award of the design of the new super regional plant next month.
Shire Hall isn’t giving the audit committee the time or space to do its work. This is a choice. A choice seemingly calculated to render the audit committee’s review pointless and irrelevant.
Shire Hall is in a hurry. However, County residents, Council and the audit committee must urge it to slow down. To consider a more prudent path. They must insist.
In his responses to questions about the super regional water plant in April (here), project manager Garrett Osborne repeatedly mentions that the planning horizon for waterworks plants is 20 years. So let’s do that.
Let’s put aside the grand and glorious plans. Plans we cannot afford. Plans the new homebuilding market does not need and cannot support.
Instead, let’s figure out how to extend and augment existing systems to serve a modest increase in the population. Let’s say 15 per cent over two decades, like our neighbours in Quinte West. Let’s look at how the waterworks utility might accommodate this growth. Let’s get back to something reasonable. Something understandable.
Because when you give a pig a pancake, he’s going to want syrup.
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