麻豆视频

The City of North Battleford got an update from the project managers on the sanitary sewer trunk main project and it was not a good one.

The city heard from Sean Bayer of KGS Group, who had some bad news to share on cost overages for the project.

Bayer reported the project, including capital, miscellaneous and project management/engineering, is coming in overall at $15,163,273.

That is $1.5 million over the original submitted cost of the project of $13.6 million.

Of that overage, Bayer said half of it is made up of construction PST, which was a provincial government dictate that came in after the city applied for the project in 2017.

Checking with the feds, Bayer said there was nothing that could have been done by city staff about it. Essentially, he said, the timing of the submission is the driver of that cost.

Bayer said it was a cost the city would not get back. 鈥淵ou used to get refunded the cost of PST, and no longer is that the case,鈥� said Bayer.

There is also an overage due to an increase in the extent of contingency for the project. The original submission had a contingency of a little under $250,000; that has been increased to $620,000.

The other additional cost is associated with actual construction on the force main. Bayer said that construction is estimated at $300,000.

The project had transitioned from a 鈥渉ybrid鈥� submission that was partially force main and partially gravity, to a full force main. The intention was that would save money and 鈥渋t certainly has,鈥� said Bayer.

But the increased construction cost is a result of 鈥渁dditional due diligence associated with the economic option of going down the hill to Highway 16, with concerns from a geotech perspective.鈥�

None of these costs are confirmed and could change during the tendering process, but Bayer made clear additional funds should be budgeted for the project.

The $1.5 million overage is a tough pill for the city to swallow. The project is being funded in one-thirds amounts by the federal, provincial and municipal governments, with each government on the hook for $4,533,333.

But as City Manager Randy Patrick explained at Monday鈥檚 meeting, it is the municipal government that is on the hook for the additional $1.5 million.

鈥淭hese are not one-third dollars, these are city dollars,鈥� said Patrick. 鈥淪o anything would have to be borrowed for and it would certainly affect rates over time.鈥�

Council members made clear they were not impressed with the $1.5 million overage, but it was not enough for them to abandon the sanitary sewer project.

鈥淚 don鈥檛 think we have a whole lot of choice in my mind, I think the project is to go ahead because we need it in order to do more development north (in) the city,鈥� said Councillor Greg Lightfoot.

It was the construction PST that rankled council the most. Lightfoot said the city knew when the PST was introduced in the provincial budget that there would be a hit to the project. They thought it would be $500-$600,000 but the $750,000 was higher than expected.

鈥淗opefully, we can lobby the provincial government to change that decision they made in the budget,鈥� said Lightfoot. He expressed hope the construction PST would be an issue at the upcoming Municipalities of Saskatchewan convention in February.

鈥淭hat鈥檚 a big, big hit to a community our size with that project alone.鈥�

Bayer concurred, and added that if the city鈥檚 application had come just a year later, the city would have been eligible for a rebate back on one-third of that PST.

Councillor Len Taylor concurred with Lightfoot and urged the Mayor and City Manager to 鈥渕ake sure this information is on the table for discussion鈥� at that upcoming convention.

鈥淚t鈥檚 one thing to argue generalities, it鈥檚 something else to have specifics on the table. And this is very much a very specific number for a very specific project with a very specific timeline, and having that available as part of the discussion board will be very useful in our lobbying efforts.鈥�

Mayor David Gillan pledged to bring up the issue at the convention to 鈥渒eep the pressure up鈥� on the government over 鈥渢his needless tax.鈥�

A motion was made at the meeting to send a letter on behalf of council to the province for a rebate of all or a portion of the PST on the project, based on the tax changes that have happened. That passed unanimously.