Kincardine council has approved a budget amendment for upgrades to the water treatment plant.
The project includes a $4.6 million dollar watermain extension for the Booster Pumping Station, which was awarded to Birnam Excavating.
Another $11.8 million will be earmarked for a capacity increase for the water treatment plant that was tendered to Baseline Constructors which was covered by this year’s capital budget.
The overall cost was a sticking point for members of council who were expected to vote on the motion during Wednesday’s council meeting.
“I think we’re dealing with a current situation which might have benefited with some forethought and a sizeable expenditure several years ago to address an issue such that we wouldn’t end up here today,” said Deputy Mayor Mike Hinchberger.
Councillor Rory Cavanagh agreed, and shared his support of the expansion project.
“This should have been done 15 years ago… The second we knew that Bruce A and Bruce B were coming back online and we started to go, this should have happened with (the Major Component Replacement), and it’s going to happen now because we’re planning for our future that is coming.”
In particular, it the budget amendment for municipality’s share of the project would cost overage was an additional $2.8 million, which led to concerns of taking too much money from the municipality’s coffers to fund the project and its overages.
“This project was considered carefully, and staff make the recommendation to proceed,” said interim CAO Kim Wingrove. “Yes, these are the financial implications today. It was shared with all of council that Kincardine has already been advised that we have priority access to to make applications to the Canada Strong Fund for another water project. And we will continue to seek support for our water and wastewater projects in order to ensure that we do our very best to maintain appropriate reserve levels. Staff would do nothing that would put in jeopardy the very regulated quality and quantity requirements that we are legislated to meet when it comes to our water supply.”
Bruce Power and the Municipality of Kincardine have jointly conducted an evaluation, and the parties agreed to proceed in accordance to the Water Supply Agreement.
Staff recommended that reserve funding cover the overages, with just under $2.1 million form the municipality’s Water Reserve Fund 68, and almost $683,000 from the Buy-In Contribution.
According to the report presented to council, Under the Water Supply Agreement, Bruce Power must make a one-time Buy-in Contribution (BIC) in the amount of $8,150,054, in order to fund the expansion of the water treatment plant and connect to the Kincardine Drinking Water System.
The BIC is used to pay for Bruce Power’s Proportionate Share of the cost of the KWTP upgrades, with any excess to be applied as a credit in favour of Bruce Power for the future cost to upgrade the Intake Structure.