Wellington pumping station approved; plant design conditional, further work deferred

Due to the crowd, council met at the Wellington Community Centre instead of Shire Hall

By Sharon Harrison
Water services took a significant step forward Tuesday evening with council making decisions involving many millions of dollars surrounding the massive infrastructure projects – and public opposition also left the meeting with a win.

The two main decisions before council were the tender for the new Wellington sanitary sewer pumping station (approved by council in a 9-5 recorded vote), and the awarding of the design services (note, this is just the design) for the new Wellington regional water treatment plant and intake, which after extensive discussion and debate, approval came with conditions.

The design services award for the new Wellington regional water treatment plant and intake was awarded to EVB Engineering, at a cost of $2,487,321 plus taxes, such project is the final design phase prior to a tender that would enable construction.

Strong Brothers General Contracting Ltd. was awarded the contract to install the new Wellington sanitary sewer pumping station, in the amount of $6,046,484, plus taxes. Council also approved $2,936,100 in additional funds from long-term debt be added to the capital project, where it was stated the debt be entirely re-paid by development charges revenue (thereby having no affect on water rates).

Council also approved entering into a sub-division agreement with Kaitlin Corporation with a condition of servicing allocation being held subject to pre-payment of development charges to be received no later than Oct. 1, 2024, in keeping with the spirit of the upfront financing agreements in place.

With staff proposing a date of no later than Dec. 1, councillor Corey Engelsdorfer asked for the Dec. 30 date to be moved up to Sept. 1, a date several councillors suggested would not work, with councillor Phil St-Jean saying, “to make the payment due on Sept. 1, it’s an absolutely ridiculous timeline”, as St-Jean noted the delays were caused by the municipality by not meeting its own deadlines. “You can’t do this by Sept. 1, it’s a holiday weekend coming up; it is not a doable situation”. Engelsdorfer offered the Oct. 1 date instead, which council finally approved.

Engelsdorfer noted that the agreement with Kaitlin (re Cork and Vine) dates back to May 2021.

“At that time Kaitlin was given 18 months to come up with the sub-division agreement. Didn’t happen. Kaitlin then acquired the Hirschfield lands and was supposed to pay development charges on that development in May 2023. Again, didn’t happen,” explained Engelsdorfer.

“September 2023, another deadline for payment passed. Last fall, Kaitlin was granted a one-year extension and council then approved the trunk line, and the last time we talked about this, we were told if the Sept. 1 deadline wasn’t met, we would call the line of credit. Here we are once again to extend the deadline because we have been too slow… 33 months to come up with something, but we are the ones that are too slow.“

The new Wellington regional water treatment plant and intake design services phase awarded to EVB Engineering was amended to include a condition of a successful grant application to the Housing-Enabling Water Systems Fund before the project begins (approved by council in a 9-5 recorded vote).

A stand-alone motion put forward by Engelsdorfer (approved by council in a 12-2 recorded vote) included to defer construction on all further waterworks infrastructure projects that are not already underway, to allow time to re-focus efforts to implement proven program management practices to minimize financial risk.

Engelsdorfer continued to read the motion:

“This involves milestones being completed, including the Picton master servicing plan, and the proposed County-wide development charges study, program management to provide a structured and visible road map of all components, stages and scope of the program with timelines and budgets to control the costs and pays for inter-related projects over the duration of the entire waterworks program.

Cost recovery management to provide a structured and visible road map that will ensure that the costs are recovered from development charges in a timely manner to minimize the overall debt load; communications management to provide clear and concise messages to all stakeholders regarding the overall objectives, progress updates, challenges, changes and risks over the course of the program.”

The anticipated large audience meant Tuesday’s council meeting warranted a change of venue to a larger space at the Wellington and District Community Centre (moved from Shire Hall), which was full to capacity and beyond as local residents flooded Highline Hall.

Around 600-700 persons filled the hall, with a further up to 160 people tuned into the live-stream for much of the five-and-a-half meeting, which finally concluded after the midnight hour (council actually endured six-and-a-half hours since the first hour was a closed session prior to the public portion of the meeting starting at 7p.m).

A large and somewhat unruly crowd disturbed the flow of the meeting throughout, interrupting some of the speakers and discussion, as the mayor repeatedly called for order and quiet in the room, sometimes to little avail it seemed, despite requests by the mayor (and the clerk) to maintain politeness and decorum, resulting in a brief recess being called to bring order to the packed room.

Members of the public voiced opinion as council heard from all sides of the argument, from those who believe upgrades to the regional water treatment plant in Wellington should be paused, claiming anticipated growth numbers are flawed, to those who appreciate growth cannot happen without upgraded and extended water services, with many opinions, beliefs and thoughts shared.

Of the nine registered deputations heard, the majority came from local developers proposing to build in the County, or who are already building here, such as Kaitlin Corporation, Picton Heights Ltd., Port Picton Homes, as well as representatives from Base31/PEC Community Partners, each of them in favour of the project proceeding as previously outlined, including the Quinte Home Builders Association.

Two local community groups, the Wellington Community Association, and Wellington on the Lake Citizens for Responsible Growth, were in favour of pressing pause on the project, along with all nine members of the public who spoke at the meeting.

A petition containing approximately 890 signatures, provided by the group, Wellington on the Lake Citizens for Responsible Growth, was submitted to council containing a request to press pause on the Wellington regional capital water and wastewater tender.

The petition indicated 742 signatures were from Wellington residents (444 from Wellington on the Lake, 298 from other Wellington), 75 from Picton, 29 from Consecon, 11 from Bloomfield, seven from Hillier, and 19 from ‘other’.

All decisions made by council tonight are to be ratified at the next council meeting, on Sept. 10.