Council voted 6-5 Tuesday night in favour of deferring construction of the Conklin Multiplex despite concerns about losing money and breaking contractual obligations raised by the councillor who represents the community.
“We need to move ahead with this project. It’s been in the books since 2011 and I think we need to finish it. I’ve also been told that because part of the project has been built, what’s happened is there’s shifting sand there and there will be a problem with the concrete if we don’t continue on with this project,” said Councillor Jane Stroud. “And we have put a lot of money into this project at the present time.”
She said the project needs to go ahead considering the project is already started, there are mounds of dirt on the site and there are the structural concerns because of shifting sand and continuing rains.
“The cost of the Conklin Multi-use, as of September 15, 2016, is $13.5 million and $3.9 million for the design, which is just over $17 million (total),” said Stroud. “Bird Construction, who has the contract, worked all winter on the project. They were asked to demobilize the project in May of this year. In speaking to Bird they have 13 trailer loads of steel on site, plus have purchased approximately 70 per cent of the pre-fabrication material.”
The actual bid for the project, Stroud said, came in at $43.5 million. She said she believed there was a contractual obligation to move forward with the project which has been in the works for six years and has seen 15 public consultations.
“The existing community centre and recreation facility was built in 1994 by the province. Increased lifecycle maintenance has surfaced due to poor design. At the present time the facility has mouse traps in the corners of the building due to this poor design and what they’re saying is therefore the best use of future capital is on the new structure. The biggest need assessment is for a functional community hall,” Stroud says.
“The other item that bothers me is how I found out this project was demobilized,” Stroud said. She explained a resident whose husband was laid off from the site informed her. She said Bird Construction had hired locally, both residents and businesses, and said the project is a good fit for the community which is in need of work as it, too, is suffering because of the downturn.
Mayor Melissa Blake agreed that providing jobs should be a priority, especially where there is proof the company is hiring locally.
Vote for deferral
Councillors Tyran Ault, Lance Bussieres, Sheldon Germain, Keith McGrath and Allan Vinni voted to defer the project.
There has been discrepancy over the governance that went into approving the project with Councillor Sheldon Germain arguing it had been approved on false promises there would be a nursing station and RCMP station in the facility. Space is being allocated for both but the funding hasn’t been approved and the provincial government has not signed leases for the space.
Councillor Colleen Tatum suggested Vinni was taking advantage of the fire to use it as a means of deferring a project some members of council have tried to stall in the past. Germain launched a governance review of the project in the fall which did find failings in the way the project was approved but it was not cancelled or taken off the 2016 budget.
“I think that this project, in particular, we have debated a number of times. We have passed many road blocks to get it to continue and, yet, we are here again tonight. And I feel like the residents of Conklin have asked for this facility, we have done engagement, we have debated it, and each time we find ourselves in a place of moving forward and there comes a time when we have to follow through with what we say we’re going to do,” she said. “And we said we were going to do this project and when certain people continue to have a problem with the scope of the project, the cost of the project, the need of the project, we have debated these items already and we have said time and time again that this project is important and the community wants this project.”
“To use the fire as a justification to try and take this project from go-ahead to not go-ahead is not right and I will not support deferring this project any longer,” Tatum said.
McGrath said there was still no confirmation from the province that space would be leased by the provincial government for the RCMP or nursing stations, which is why he and other councillors had objected to the project’s approval in the past.
The total cost of the project, including design, is slated at $50 million.
Its construction will now be deferred until 2017.
Capital project review
Council also voted in favour of deferring another six items that administration had recommended for resumption, based on amendments put forward by Councillor Allan Vinni in the interest of preserving funding in the event it’s needed for recovery.
Those include Architectural Upgrades of Owned and Leased 2013, which is an ongoing project and includes work done on an as-needed but non-essential basis; ; Flood Mitigation Pre-design/Design, which is something that needs provincial approval before moving forward and administration agreed it would be cost-effective to hold off on designing until that approval is granted; $10 million in land acquisition funding for 2016, which was deferred with administration’s blessing; and the third and fourth phases of the Active Transportation Trail 2014-2016 construction, as the first and second phases are nearly complete.
Anzac Community Centre Upgrades
Vinni had also suggested deferring plans to upgrade the Anzac Community Centre, a place where gatherings including wakes and meetings are held regularly.
But Stroud asked administration to speak to the importance of the upgrades.
“They just had a fire in the hall because of, the stove is quite ancient, so, there was a gas leak, so I’m wondering, the hall is in, it hasn’t had an upgrade for many years, it was built in 1989, so I’d just like to know if there’s somebody here that could speak on that,” said Stroud.
Before administration could speak on it, Mayor Melissa Blake explained Vinni’s amendments would have to be dealt with one by one.
When the Anzac Community Centre item came up for a vote Stroud clarified her position and it surfaced that there, in fact, was not a fire, but merely two gas leaks and the threat of fire.
“My understanding with the community hall, as I’m aware with the community hall, the stove, there was a gas leak, due to the stove, so there’s definitely repairs needed in the kitchen, that stove was probably there since 1989 and when you look at some of the flooring, the air conditioning, you know, it’s beyond repair, it needs to be uplifted in many aspects within the hall itself. The curtains, the flooring, so I think that was all part of the project was to give it a face-lift,” said Stroud.
Sally Warford , Acting Director of Community Services with the RMWB said the project was brought forward to do repairs to the building to bring it up to code.
“The incident, there was another incident just the other day of a gas leak in that building,” she said.
“That’s correct,” Stroud interrupted. “It was to bring it up to code because we have electrical problems etc.”
They discussed the fact there are areas throughout the building that are not up to code and need to be repaired.
“Yes, it would definitely be a liability to the municipality if we continued on with those problems within that hall, especially the code, compliancy to the code,” Stroud said in response to a question from Mayor Melissa Blake.
Blake then asked if there was anything else on the item before a vote.
“Did we have insurance for this fire in this building,” Vinni asked Warford.
“I’m not aware of any fire but I know there was a gas leak this morning in that building and we had to send all the occupants, including our staff, home,” she said.
“Sorry, I thought I heard somebody say there was a fire there a few weeks ago,” Vinni said.
“I wasn’t aware of the fire,” said Warford.
“The gas leak was again last week also, on the Friday. My understanding from Patty was there was a potential of a fire there, I’m not too sure,” said Stroud.
“Okay, because I heard earlier that there was a fire, so cancel the alarm on the fire” Vinni said.
“Yes,” said Stroud.
There was a recess to clarify the motions councillors would be voting on after confusion in the first attempt to vote on possibly deferring the Anzac Community Centre Upgrades. When the vote was called again Stroud made it clear why she was advocating the work be done now.
“The reason that we need these upgrades is the electrical system needs to be brought up to code. The HVAC system also needs to be brought up to code. There was a flood in the hall and what happens if the HVAC system doesn’t bring it up to code, we’ll have problems of the potentiality of mould build-up in the building. For the kitchen, we’ve had numerous gas leaks, which is a potential for fire. We need to bring the kitchen up to code for continued use for the community,” said Stroud.
“The kitchen stove is probably from 1989. I think that’s a lot of the problem in that area,” she said.
Council agreed there was a need to bring the facility up to code and kept the item on administration’s list for projects set to resume
Resumed, deferred and cancelled projects
In summary, the 54 projects approved to resume are:
1 A Frame Road Sanitary Lift Station – Design
2 Abasand Heights Pumphouse Upgrade – Design
3 Anzac Community Centre Upgrades
4 Anzac Wastewater Treatment Plant and Effluent Pipeline – Construction
6 Automated River Monitoring
7 Building Security Infrastructure Upgrade
8 Casman Centre Building Management System Upgrade
9 Confederation Way Sanitary Sewer Phase 2 – Construction
11 Conklin Water Treatment/Supply Upgrades – Design
12 Doug Barnes Cabin Expansion – Construction
13 Electronic Agenda and Voting
14 Enterprise Resource Planning
15 Fire Hall 6 Predesign/Design
18 Fort Chipewyan Water/Sanitary Sewer – Predesign
19 Fort Chipewyan Animal Control
20 Information and Advisory Services Infrastructure Upgrades
21 Intelligent Bus Transit System (IBTS)
22 Intersection Improvement Thickwood Boulevard and Confederation Way
23 Janvier Sewage Lagoon Upgrade – Construction
24 Janvier Steel Building – Rink Replacement
25 Land Acquisition 2012-2014
28 Legislative Management System Replacement
29 Life-Pak 15 Replacement
30 MacDonald Island Park Sustaining Capital Grant
31 Northern Utility Corridor – Predesign
32 Northside Recreation Centre – Design
33 Prairie Loop Boulevard
34 Road B at Saline Creek – Design
35 Rural Infrastructure Rehabilitation 2015-2017 – Design
36 Rural Infrastructure Rehabilitation 2015-2017 – Construction
37 Rural Water/Sewer Servicing – Construction
38 Saline Creek Drive – Placemaking
39 Silin Forest Road Rehabilitation
40 Syncrude Athletic Park Clubhouse Improvements – Equipment
41 Snyeside Park System – Construction
42 Saprae Creek Community Hall – Predesign/Design
43 South East 881 Water Supply Line – Predesign/Design
44 South West Water Supply Line Phase 1 – Construction
45 Urban Infrastructure Rehabilitation 2016-2018 – Design
46 Urban Infrastructure Rehabilitation 2014-2016 – Predesign/Design
47 Waterways and Horse Pasture Park
Substantially Complete
(48) Phases 1 and 2 of Active Transportation Trail 2014-2016 – Construction
49 Active Transportation Trail 2014-2016 – Design
50 Architectural Upgrades of Owned and Leased 2010
51 Arena Site Preparation
52 Birchwood Trail Pedestrian Bridge – Predesign
53 Community Accessibility – Rural
54 Conklin Sewage Lagoon Upgrades – Design
55 Council Chamber Technology Upgrades
56 Information Services Infrastructure Upgrades 2015
57 Landfill Gas Management System – Regional Landfill – Predesign
58 Rural Community Placemaking – Anzac
59 Saprae Creek Water Distribution Upgrades – Predesign
There were previously 22 items recommended for deferral, the amended total made 28 projects the deferrals of which were all approved.
1 Abasand Pump House Upgrade – Construction
2 Beacon Hill Outflow and Pipeline Upgrade
3 Clearwater Riverside Park – Construction
4 Clearwater Riverside Park – Remediation
5 Community Playgrounds (Eagle Ridge and others)
6 Enterprise Information Management
7 Fleet Shop Equipment Tooling
8 Flood Mitigation – Construction
9 Fort Chipewyan Base Bleacher Replacements
10 Fort MacKay Fire Hall – Construction
11 Fort MacKay Sewage Lagoon Upgrade – Design
12 Fort MacKay Sewage Lagoon Upgrade – Predesign
13 Gregoire Lake Estates Trail and Skate Park Design
14 Highway 63: Bus Lane add at Thickwood
15 MacKenzie Stormwater Management – Design
16 Northside Multi-Use Facility Phase 1 (Twin Arenas)
17 Parson’s Creek Fire Hall 6 – Construction
18 Pumper Truck for Fire Station 6
19 Rural Community Placemaking Fort MacKay – Design
20 South Regional Reversible Effluent Pipeline – Design
21 Transit Facility Construction Green Trip Project
22 Vista Ridge 2014-2016 Capital Grant
(23 )Architectural Upgrades of Owned and Leased 2013
(24) Conklin Multiplex
(25) Fleet Shop Automated Vehicle Locator (AVL) Equipment
(26) Flood Mitigation Predesign/Design
(27) Land Acquisition 2016
(28) Phases 3 and 4 of the Active Transportation Trail 2014-2016
Ten projects were recommended for cancellation.
Abasand Pump House/Reservoir – Upgrade Design
2 Fraser and Manning Predesign/Design
3 Fraser Avenue and McLeod Street Extension
4 Parsons Creek Highway 686 Bus Lane
5 RCMP Project Room Fit-Up
6 Surface Parking Relocation/Improvements Pre-Construction
7 Syncrude Timberlea Athletic Park Expansion Land Acquisition
8 Tipping Pad Construction
9 Tipping Pad Predesign and Design
10 Warm Up Shelters
In order to finalize the deferrals and cancellations there will have to be amendments made to the budget, which will all have to be approved by council. Administration has until August 16 to bring those budgetary amendments before council for approval.
Keyano College funding
Council cancelled a $10 million dollar grant that had been approved in 2015 based on a staff recommendation that said the RMWB had failed to reach an agreement with Keyano on the conditions laid out for the funding.
Interim Keyano College President Dr. Tracy Edwards spoke on behalf of the college’s leadership team and the board of directors on the move to cancel the grant.
“My understanding was, from last year, that there would be an advisory council of community members set up to have input into the programming of the theatre and Keyano was quite amenable to that,” said Edwards. “When we received the agreement it stated that it wasn’t an advisory council that was being proposed, it was actually a governing council, which would be made up of 20 per cent of RMWB people, 20 per cent of Keyano, and 60 per cent of the community.”
She said because Keyano’s assets are owned by the province they cannot cede governance to another body.
“So, on May the 2nd we wrote to the municipality and had two items in that letter: one was that we clarified the fact that we couldn’t cede control of the theatre because it was a provincial asset and the second point that we made was we had hoped that we could use the $10 million for planning, for design, for the theatre and the agreement precluded that.” said Edwards. “So, in our letter back we said these are the two issues that we have and we are happy to come back to the table and have more dialogue about that and we received no response.”
She said the board of directors and the college itself believe the theatre is a valuable and viable asset in the community. Keyano College, she said, subsidizes the theatre at the rate of $500,000 a year out of its operating budget because the theatre is not a revenue generating operation.
“On behalf of our leadership team and the board, I’m going to make your job easy tonight and respectfully decline the funding with the arrangements that have been presented to us,” she said.
Council took her presentation into consideration when approving the cancellation of the $10 million grant.
“It is so much easier when you say it seems like a good idea,” said Mayor Melissa Blake.
No time off for council
There will not be a two week break for members of council after they voted against cancelling the August 2 and 9 meetings. Administration had recommended the break because there were few items for the agendas those weeks and because staff could use the time for other work.
But councillors agreed there could be work arising from the Recovery Committee and agreed they should stand by the decision they made in May to forego a summer recess this year.
“We have things to do,” said Councillor Phil Meagher who added he would rather work through the summer, as promised in May.
“If there’s ever a time this council and this administration need to be working, it’s now,” said Councillor Lance Bussieres, arguing taking time off would be disrespectful to the residents who are waiting to return home.
Germain, a member of the Recovery Committee, said it didn’t make sense to cancel the meetings when, in all likelihood, business would arise from the committee that would need the attention of full council during those weeks.
Mayor Melissa Blake ended up voting against the break but cautioned that there would have to be new business coming from the Recovery Committee or the meetings would be cancelled.
