The job

It’s not about Wellington. Never was. It is about reckless spending, overly ambitious and poorly assembled plans, and the twitchy arrogance of one man who believes he can and will commit hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars to his dream— because he is mayor. Because he can.

His former campaign manager and other cheerleaders around council and elsewhere worked hard last week to change the channel—to distil the worries of a ruinous boondoggle-in-the-making down to the whiny complaints of soft and entitled Wellington residents fussed by construction disruption.

It isn’t true. And they know it isn’t true. They are hoping to misdirect your attention. Look here, not there. Like the robin limping across your lawn—intent on drawing you away from her nest.

But Mayor Steve Ferguson, for his part, is done with apologizing for his ambition. He was crystal clear last week about his intentions. He is going to build a super regional water plant in Wellington and a 21-kilometre pipeline to bring water to Base31 and Picton. No matter what.

Furthermore, residents will fund the $300 million price tag for as long as it takes developers to pay their share, which will take centuries at the current population growth rate. He will soon be armed with strong mayor powers, and flush with this authority, he is now confident enough to say the quiet part out loud.

He intends to do this because he has made a promise. And he will do everything in his power— and the power Doug Ford has vested in him—to keep his promise.

“It is important that we are reliable and complete the jobs we promised we would do,” said Ferguson last week. In case some folks weren’t clear about what the job was, he declared the proposed regional water plant scheme as “critical to meeting the future needs of the County.” Any lingering ambiguity was flushed away.

Which brings us to some critical questions: To whom has he made this promise? When did he make it? What else has he promised?

We need these answers. Because last summer, Mayor Ferguson made another promise. He promised his fellow council members and County residents, before 600 witnesses, that no further construction of waterworks projects beyond the trunk lines in Wellington would occur until a list of conditions was met.

The conditions include the creation of development charges for Picton and Bloomfield. It includes a detailed financial plan prescribing precisely how the cost of this infrastructure will be repaid by developers. It includes program management capacity added to Shire Hall to ensure plans, size, phasing, and timelines make sense and adhere to the program. (It should also include a final tally of the trunk lines project currently underway in Wellington.)

These are big, important and measurable conditions. While some are in the works, none have yet been completed. Until then, it is impossible to know if the plans work. If any of it makes sense. It’s not a check-thebox exercise. At least, it shouldn’t be.

So, how has Mayor Ferguson promised to build massive infrastructure? Before knowing the answers to these questions? On what basis has he made this promise?

Mayor Ferguson is done, however, with critics of this proposed project.

It’s time, according to Ferguson, for the “Monday morning quarterbacks” to get on board or get out of the way. It is time for his critics to “appreciate the difficult and professional work that has gone into the development of this infrastructure piece.”

But here’s the thing: even with the best architect, the best engineering minds, and the best builders framing your home, none of this expertise will help if the foundation is rotten. And Mayor Ferguson’s project foundation is surely rotten.

He plans to build waterworks to accommodate 47,100 people in Picton, Bloomfield and Wellington— nearly six times greater than the current combined population of 8,044 of these communities today. (From Shire Hall’s Regional Water Supply Servicing Plan, January 2025).

In Shire Hall’s consultant’s most optimistic scenario, it will take 161 years for the population of these communities to reach this size and likely longer. Under Watson and Associates’ more prudent forecast, and substantiated by other demographers, it will be more than 253 years before our communities need this scale of waterworks.

No community, not even rapidly expanding urban centres, builds waterworks infrastructure for a civilization two and a half centuries into the future. It will be obsolete, broken and replaced many generations before the humans show up to use it. The premise is broken. It’s too big. Too expensive. His house will not stand.

Yet, Mayor Ferguson has made a promise.

rick@wellingtontimes.ca