Overwhelming concern over Wellington water project

Story and photos by Sharon Harrison
Municipal law lawyer Andrew Biggart told his clients and other members of the public he felt the municipality is “astonishingly reckless… to be putting itself on the hook for a quarter billion dollars of development when the developer should be the one paying for it in the first place.”

County residents seeking more information about the County’s planned water infrastructure expansion project in Wellington, (including construction of a new trunk water main and sewer trunk line) attended a meeting in a full-to-bursting standing-room-only Highline Hall Monday evening at the Wellington and District Community Centre.

The event was hosted by the Wellington Community Association (WCA), in partnership with the group Wellington on the Lake Citizens for Responsible Growth (WOTLCRG). Moderated by WCA steering committee member John Whyte, the meeting heard from several speakers, including Joanna Green (WCA chair), Jennifer Armstrong (WCA steering committee member), Helen Prolas (WOTLCRG chair), Corey Engelsdorfer (Wellington ward councillor), as well as Biggart.

Several members of the public asked questions about road closures, the effect on emergency vehicles, how residents would access homes, and whether the rural detour route (once Main Street is blocked off) will be repaired, something Engelsdorfer said would be brought up to standard.

One man spoke to the project going full steam ahead, and asked if there was any “hope to being able to slow it down, re-vamp it, or downsize it or whatever?”, to which Engelsdorfer replied, “I believe so, there’s still time.”

In a show of hands, the majority of attendees indicated they were from Wellington, but representation from other wards of the County was also noted.

WCA chair Joanna Green stated the meeting is the culmination of countless months of research and investigation into a “complex, confusing and a very foreign, unfamiliar, convoluted technical and bureaucratic process” where she assured that WCA was not “over-reacting, not being alarmist and not here to fear-monger.”

Her message was, “stop this before it is too late”, noting it is not just a Wellington problem, but affects all County water ratepayers.

Councillor Engelsdorfer provided an update on the pending road closures resulting from the project that will affect Main and Cleminson streets and Prince Edward Drive.

He referred to the project as a “very intrusive” one. He noted from countless emails received from residents, concerns include access to homes, the detour road not being adequate, the worry of response times for emergency vehicles (roughly 3.5 calls per week from WOTL, he said), and the loss of local business revenues.

Completion of the entire Wellington waterworks project is expected to take about 16 months, and is anticipated to be finished by the end of 2025.

“At this point, it’s clear the project is underway, the pipes are going in the ground in the village, so from my standpoint, it’s time to start looking forward and thinking about mitigation and impact measures.”

He proposed a working group be made up of himself, WCA members, WOTLCRG members, County staff and a Clearway Construction contact, that would meet as often as bi-weekly to get project updates so as to mitigate impacts on residents and businesses.

While access to WOTL will be maintained with one lane of traffic throughout the project, Engelsdorfer also mentioned that discussions were taking place with Sterling Homes who own the land east of WOTL to talk about a temporary emergency vehicle access into WOTL, to be used for emergency vehicles.

“From the beginning of my term, I believe that council, the municipality and ratepayers should not be taking on all of the financial risk for a project of this size; that’s strictly the job of a developer,” he said, noting he is not anti-development. “I stood opposed to Wellington waterworks project due to the lack of a sound financial plan and what I believe is overstated growth and incorrect commercial numbers.”

“It certainly has been a tumultuous two years and it’s unfortunate there are still so many unanswered questions and concerns, and a lack of communication from Shire Hall about this project,” said Engelsdorfer, while calling out his unsupportive fellow councillors.

“It’s also unfortunate that I only see a few councillors in the room (councillors Harrison, Braney, Pennell and Hirsch). The presence of more council members would have been helpful addressing the questions and concerns many of you have with the largest project this municipality has ever undertaken.

He also stated the provincial government’s desire to build housing should not cause undue hardship to residents of Wellington, or Prince Edward County.

“Let’s set aside increased water rates for a second, let’s just talk about moving forward with a debt serviced project of this magnitude. It will certainly have tripling effects on every ward as the County won’t be able to maintain current service levels, let alone complete upgraded projects,” said Engelsdorfer.

He explained how the waterworks projects will be installed at today’s construction costs, and amortized over decades, but the completion of the proposed building developments could take even longer.

“There is no model that I’ve seen to show how long the County can carry the debt for the capacity numbers appear to be based on aspirational projected growth from previously unsubstantiated master servicing plans,” he said. “It just doesn’t make financial sense to me, yet the majority of council seems fine to steam ahead.”

He said once the Wellington lines along the trail are installed, the County will have met its interim servicing obligation and there will be capacity for roughly 400 homes in the village. He asked “what’s the rush for a regional plan?”, noting 400 new homes could take 10 years, maybe 15.

“I am asking for council to slow down this runaway train.”

WCA’s Jennifer Armstrong also talked about the project and its risks, and all the unanswered questions, and the assumptions the project is based on.

“The project is built on assumptions and if these assumptions are wrong, the foundation will be weak, leading to collapse,” said Armstrong. She said Shire Hall is spending millions of dollars assuming the population of Prince Edward County will double in size. “According to Shire Hall’s experts however, the growth rate over the next 20 years will be 1.1 per cent per year, a growth rate which is almost double our historic rate.”

“At that rate, it will take 171 years for Wellington to expand from 2,248 people to 14,500.”

Using Shire Hall’s growth rate, Armstrong said Wellington will only add 648 people in 20 years. “We have the capacity in the plant today to accommodate that growth, we are building waterworks for a population that won’t arrive for a century-and-a-half, at which time the plant will be obsolete.”

She further noted that building the plant to accommodate the assumptions comes with a hefty price tag – $138 million.

“When you add in the pipeline project, we have two kilometres in Wellington costing $16 million, the total length of 20 kilometres would cost 10 times that, including cost over-runs, the water tower was 40 per cent over the estimate, Picton sewage treatment was 62 per cent over the final estimate.”

“If we move forward with this water project, and the development doesn’t happen, the ratepayers will be left to foot the bill,” suggesting a possible $50,000 debt per household and fearing water bills that could double or triple.

She added that “$30 million of the projected funding is expected to come from one million square feet of non-residential development in Wellington. Think about that, the equivalent of six Costco stores in Wellington.”

This project is based on the premise of “build it and they will come”, but who’s it really for?” adding no one has undertaken a water upgrade like this before, and how it’s an unprecedented project.

The evening’s keynote speaker, Andrew Biggart, a municipal law lawyer, summarized several key concerns as they pertain to the waterworks expansion project and the associated risks to residents.

Andrew Biggart

Biggart was retained by the WCA to represent and advocate for the community and was introduced by Green as one of the most widely-respected municipal law lawyers in Ontario in his over 25-year career.

“When I hear numbers like $200 million, and I don’t ever believe a figure of $200 million is ever $200 million (because there’s always interest, engineering fees, externalities come into play). In my mind, I approach this as basically a quarter billion dollar project, $250 million,” said Biggart.

“What I have seen, and what I have seen not explained to me, despite my efforts, with respect to this municipality, the only words I come up with are “astonishingly reckless”.

He stressed how development is to pay for development.

“That means developers are to pay for development, and new home owners, when/if they show up, reimburse the developer for the development charges (DC) they paid to the municipality,” said Biggart.

“But even more, and this is where I say “reckless… Why would a municipality pay for, put itself on the hook for, a quarter billion dollars of development when the developer should be the one paying for it in the first place?”

“I see no evidence at all, and I’ve asked, that this municipality has in any way secured a guarantee of repayment or a guarantee of repayment at any time they are in control of – that is alarming to me.”

Biggart said he has received two copies of agreements that the municipality has said they have entered into with developers, totalling about $16 million to come back to the municipality.

He reminded that a municipality has zero control over when a developer seeks to have a plan of sub-division approved and also spoke to the process of “land banking”.

“People do land bank. They get lands designated, they get it zoned, and they get it serviced and they just wait for property values to go up and their timing when they want to do it; they then develop when the timing is right for them,” he explained.

He described it as a “path that makes no sense to me”, and one he has never seen before. “It’s just not how it’s done, it’s backwards, and upside down”.

Biggart said he is concerned for the municipality and its ratepayers not getting answers and “I consider the actions as being reckless. That’s why I’m here tonight.”

Biggart also spoke about growth analysis and the report provided by Watson and Associates.

“I found it astonishing and I found it alarming, the municipality said it would go back and look at some of the costing exercises with respect to work on growth analysis with respect to RFP (request for proposal) to get third-party analysis,” and recalled 12 RFPs were sent asking to provide a second review of information, and nobody responded.

“That none responded to an RFP is very puzzling to me,” he said, noting two possible rationales as to why. “I have never seen 12 RFPs go out and nobody answers and that causes me some concern; that should cause a re-think… Either the RFP was faulty by the municipality, or nobody wanted to touch this one because you don’t want to bite the hand that feeds.”

A member of the public asked if there is a lawsuit to be made against the County council for neglecting their statutory duties.

Biggart said it was too early to say whether it would be suitable to file an application against them because more information is needed to make that determination. “It is still an option available, but I couldn’t answer yet whether it should be done, and it should always be a last step.”

Details and updates on the waterworks project can be found on the County’s website.

Green concluded the meeting by saying the key take-away is that the math doesn’t add up. She reminds the public can show up at the Aug. 27 council meeting at Shire Hall, where the tender of the water treatment plant is to be awarded.

Click here for background stories on the Wellington water project.