Time to step up

I attended the information session on August 31 regarding the Wellington Water and Waste Water Project that was meant to answer the question and concerns of the community regarding this project. What I observed was a community that came together to ask those in charge some very serious questions about a project that has failed to communicate effectively how it started, where it was going, and more importantly, its current status.

No the people that attended were not there to fight against growth; what they wanted to know was the financial impact to their lives should this project go south after spending $100 million dollars of taxpayer money. The questions they were asking and not well answered in all cases, surrounded what the impact would be on water rates that are already in the top two per cent of the country and how will we pay for it if growth in the area and houses built fall short of estimates.

Here are some of the questions that were not answered or information that was not shared:

1. Where did the growth numbers come from. How did we go from and estimate in Wellington of 4,000 to 8,000 and now, announced just before this meeting, 14,000?

2. How did we come up with estimate that growth would include 1 million square feet of commercial space in Wellington alone? This estimate is included in the development fee calculation that builders are suppose to pay to offset the costs of this project. It was pointed out to the presenters that no one in Wellington ever asked for this type of development and that for areas like, say, Belleville (a larger and more desirable investment area), this type of square footage would be almost impossible to get.

3. Where does Kaitlin, the only developer left (out of a list that once had three developers on it) who would build houses and prepay development fees, stand on their readiness to build? Without Kaitlin building a lot of houses quickly and prepaying development fees, how do we the taxpayer pay for the debt incurred?

4. Why and when did we exclude the possibility of expanding the current Wellington plant (we were told it was designed to be modular and could extend capacity in the future) and look for ways to upgrade the Picton plant. While this may mean maintaining two systems at this time is it possible it would save money and make the project more affordable for the taxpayer?

5. What is the true cost of upgrading all systems in the County? I think many were surprised that the next phase of this work requires a new treatment plant in Wellington servicing all of Wellington, Bloomfield and Picton by joining it all with a lot of pipe. Costs thrown out at the meeting quickly added up by the audience suggests the project to exceed $150 million. Where does that money come from?

By the end of the session people were shaking their heads and wondering what they had just witnessed. The mayor stood at the podium and did not answer any questions, but instead passed them to staff and consultants to answer. The council members in attendance sat quietly in the corner and did not try to answer questions either. Not a good look. It would seem this project was dreamed up several years ago under the eyes of a council membership that does not exist today, was not presented to new members of Council in detail to bring them up to speed, is not discussed by current Council at all meetings and is solely run by Shire Hall staff and consultants with no oversight by those elected by taxpayers.

So we have a project that I believe is the biggest and most expensive undertaking in County history not under regular scrutiny by our elected officials, not being adjusted for the many changes that have occurred in our economy and not being communicated regularly to the taxpayer who will pay the bills and will face the consequences if it fails.

It is a major project with many questions as I have outlined above. So here we are, three to four years into the project, $20 to $30 million dollars spent, no new houses being built and no development fees collected and we are cruising along in a project that no one representing the taxpayer is overseeing. In the world of project management the risk of failure of such a project is great. In the private sector this project would be halted immediately until a reset is defined and implemented.

To our mayor and councillors, this is where you step up. You are the elected individuals put in place by the taxpayer to represent us. Get this on the next council meeting as the only agenda item and discuss openly how this project should be changed and how those changes can be implemented in a timely manner.

I have seen groups like the Wellington Community Association and Wellington on the Lake present letters and petitions to our mayor and council on this project only to be ignored. This to me is the most unacceptable part of this project so far. No project should even start without a communication plan providing clear information on what is going on to the taxpayers.

If you are not willing to do your job then the only other thing I can suggest is that you step down and allow others to do the work that is necessary. We have many qualified people in the community ready to step up.

Tim Good, Wellington