HEDDY SOROUR

Designing more efficiently

The town of Carleton Place is currently seeking funding to build a new recreational facility better suited to serving current and future residents. At the May 6 Committee of the Whole council received a presentation from Enbridge Gas designed to help the town through the design phase of a new recreational facility.

“Enbridge, through their Savings by Design services, cover consulting services they provide at a value of $30,000 and will provide the Town $4000 if we sign up for this service. The service is free,” said Ross Rankin, property and project manager with Carleton Place.

 The program is being considered after the Recreation Facility Concept Plan is complete and during the design phase provided the town is successful in accessing upper tier funding for the project.

As Venoth Jeganmohan with Enbrige, explained to committee members the program helps offset natural gas usage to delay necessary upgrades and help reduce natural gas reliance across the province. This program has been in place for 20 years.

Climate Initiatives

The town also received a presentation from Quest Canada, a national charity that helps municipalities in Canada set and achieve their energy emissions reduction targets.

“We are launching this in Ontario so hopefully Carleton Place will be one of the first communities to participate,” said Norma Panetta, lead project with Quest.

The program costs $3000 which Enbridge Gas has agreed to pay through their Public Affairs and Municipal Stakeholder Engagement group.

“Municipalities and upper tiers such as Lanark County have signed up with the Partners for Climate Protection (PCP) to go through a Milestone Framework by completing five milestones. Quest Canada provides sessions to work through the first three. This program would look at all the town’s assets,” said Ross Rankin, property and project manager with Carleton Place.

Water and Wastewater

The Carleton Place water and wastewater plant expansion has hit another hiccup at least until the Province tables its budget and clarifies changes to Development Charges.

“I personally am not comfortable being unsure what the Province might do as part of their budget,” said Mayor Toby Randell at the May 6 Committee of the Whole.

The town received three bids for the Water and Wastewater plant expansions and the lowest bid came in at $123 and a half million before HST. The final amount after HST, project management and inspection ($9 million) and a $10 million contingency (to cover potential tariff costs and or unexpected events) brings the total to a little under $146 million or $32 million more than budgeted. The full amount of the expansion is to be paid from development charges over time, on the principle that growth pays for growth. However the Province recently intimated that it was going to make changes to the development charges act with the goal of reducing DCs to speed up housing development.

Approving the motion to award the tender for the expansion at the meeting last night would move it to the Council meeting on May 20 for final passage. The Provincial budget is expected on May 15 and council members have agreed to call a special Committee of the Whole on May 16 to parse any new information revealed by the Provincial Budget as it pertains to development charges. As councillor Jeff Atkinson pointed out, from a procedural point of view deferring the decision to approve the tender until a Special Committee of the Whole on the 16th for final approval on the 20th is much the same as approving the tender on May 6 since either way final passage would still take place on May 20th.

“While I agree with Councillor Atkinson, I disagree with sending a message to our residents who elected us to represent them and make financial decisions that are in their best interest when we don’t have all the information tonight. I in good faith cannot make this $145 million financial decision knowing it might change in six days,” said Councillor Mark Hinton.

The motion to approve the award of the tender to ASCO Construction in the amount of $145,868,367 has been deferred until a Special Committee of the Whole to be convened on May 15th or May 16.