Kincardine Council is moving ahead with a plan that will see the municipality take over the water and sewer system at the Bruce Energy Centre Industrial Park from Bruce Power.
Bruce Power currently owns the system and wants to instead focus on the electricity business.
The municipality sees taking it over as an opportunity to attract more economic development.
The two parties have been looking at transferring ownership of the system since last year.
Mayor Larry Kraemer says council has agreed to go onto the next phase where fine details can be examined with the hope of reaching an agreement.
He says it’s a good opportunity for the municipality and it’s economic development initiatives, especially when an asset becomes available in an extremely affordable way.
930 thousand dollars in upgrades on the system could be needed over the next 7 to 10 years, Bruce Power has offered 300 thousand in seed money to help with the transfer.
The municipality believes it can operate the system at a lower cost than Bruce Power, which currently contracts the work out to the Ontario Clean Water Agency.
Bruce Power has also agreed to provide further help if there are any unexpected further costs — something that has calmed the concerns of the Tiverton and District Ratepayers Association.
Residents of the community are also connected to the sewer system.
Councillor Randy Roppel was also assured that there would still be extra capacity left in the sewage system, even after homes in Inverhuron are connected to it.
As for when talks will be finished and the transfer of ownership can take place, Bruce Power Executive Vice President of Corporate Services Dwight Willett says doesn’t want to estimate how quickly lawyers can do the job, but he’s hoping for the beginning of January, 2010.
Willett says Bruce Power actually leases the system from Ontario Power Generation through the agreement to operate the generating stations, so OPG will also be involved in the discussion.