City's water infrastructure planning makes for discussion Monday at Council session

City resident Tom Kertes brought a list of concerns and questions
related to how the City of Prince Rupert may be looking
at the future of the city's water infrastructure system

"No decision has been made at this point in time, we're very early in this process" -- Prince Rupert  Mayor Herb Pond offering some reassurance that any plans towards the future of the city's water infrastructure are still in the early days of discussion. 

Whatever plans that City council may have towards the future of how they operate the civic water infrastructure, Monday night provided some notice that as they chart the path forward, keeping the public informed should be the number one priority.

What became a presentation topic at City Hall for a local community advocacy group, came in response to a recent call for expressions of interest by the City on the BC Bid website, which was looking to explore the prospects for partnership on the city's water treatment plans.

A topic we explored back in mid October and a note that propelled the local group People for Public Infrastructure to seek out an opportunity to discuss the topic with council.

That came as part of Monday's Committee of the Whole presentation, when Tom Kertes appeared in the Council chambers to share his concerns and that of the community group towards the dangers they believe a private model could lead to.

With the City's Operations Director Richard Pucci to deliver his own report on the topic later in the session, Mr. Kertes chose to focus on some of the reading of that report to frame his presentation, for the most part relaying ten questions that the document raised for him.

Those themes included:

When did city council direct senior staff to move forward on using a municipality-controlled corporation to run the city’s public water and, possibly, public sewer system – in partnership with a private company? 

Who was involved in developing plans to set up a municipality-controlled corporation, working with a private company, to run (including finance and operate) our water and, possibly, sewer system?

Is there a business plan and can we see it? 

How much debt does the city plan to finance through a municipality-controlled corporation? The initial rumour was $230 million dollars. Is this true? 

What assurances do residents and businesses have the once a municipality-controlled corporation is formed that it will not be sold in whole (or part) at a future date? 

What are the alternatives and have these been considered by city council already? 

What can a municipality-controlled corporation do that a public (within the municipality) utility cannot do? 

If the municipality-controlled corporation forms a partnership with a private company, then how will its profits be calculated and paid for? 

Will the municipality-controlled corporation be able to make a profit? If so, why? 

Finally, is the decision already made? Or is there still a process for the public to share its concerns and to have input into how our public utility system is structured, run, and financed?

In reply to his opening remarks, Councillor Adey observed how there was a a lot to absorb and how the questions were worthy of answers and that as things unfold he hoped he would get those answers.

The Mayor noted that no decision has been made to this point and that it was very early in the process.

Following his list of questions, Councillor Teri Forster suggested that Council also allow for his scheduled presentation, a slide show review of some of concerns the group has related to any thoughts of taking the civic infrastructure into the private sector.

Much of their work on the topic is also available online, which you can review from their website here.

In comments following up on his presentation, Councillor Cunningham thanked Mr. Kertes for it and noted that some of his questions could apply to anything that the Council does. 

The Councillor also observed that on the issue of the water initiative, there is no intent to privatize the whole system just to determine if there is an alternative to it and it is not something that Council takes lightly.

"I don't think we're going to privatize the whole water system, I don't think that was the intent of council. We were just reaching out to see if there was an alternative to it. 

So far, like the mayor says there has been no decision made and before we make a decision, trust me we'll be looking around, it's not something that we're going to  take lightly.

As much as I'd like to see the sewer privatized because we would save 120 million dollars that we don't have I don't think that will ever happen, it's not exactly a buskins most people want to get into -- Councillor Barry Cunningham

That set the stage for the presentation to Council from the City's Director of Operations, who observed that many of the Questions asked by Mr. Kertes would require a bit more time to answer.

Mr. Pucci's presentation provided some background to the city's water infrastructure and to highlight why they had sought out interest from the private sector.

"At this point right now, we've just requested to see if there's any interested parties for this design, build, operate, maintain and finance model. 

We had no idea if there was interest, we heard there might be so we thought we would go out and take a look ... and council was aware of that.

At this point right now, we have not completed our review process, but there has been some interest. Council will be aware after we've done a full compliant look at the bids then we can bring that forward for council Review"-- Operations Director Richard Pucci

Towards why the City may explore taking on some private interests in operation of the civic infrastructure program, the Operations Director noted of the financial issues related to the work required, the challenges of attracting staff members towards operations.

"The city is proposing this because a lot of it has to do with Operation Capacity and  some of it has to do with Financial concerns" -- Operations Director Richard Pucci

The proposal would be for a municipally owned company, controlled by the City Council, with the City to have a larger share of whatever Board was required to operate it.

From report to Council November 21 2022

When it comes to a new water treatment facility, Mr. Pucci observed as to how it would be state of the art and how there is a need to introduce a more sophisticated system to that currently in place, which he noted was verging on non-compliant.

He also observed that they don't anticipate any conflict with the union as they have been specific on any ties to union agreement provisions, noting  however of the ongoing challenges towards attracting and retaining qualified individuals for the infrastructure.

To that theme he suggested that the proposal may be one way to solve some of those staffing concerns.

From report to Council November 21 2022

Like the Mayor, Mr. Pucci reinforced that no decision has been made to this point.

"I just want to stress that there is no decisions made, Council does ultimately have the final decision here and that the first step was always to go out and see if there was actual interest in the market, to see if there was interest there to support us" -- Operations Director Richard Pucci

City Manager Rob Buchan picked up on the theme of the staffing issues, recounting some of the many challenges the city is finding as it tries to fill vacant positions with little success and how it is a significant and difficult issue for Council to consider.

With the prospect of the proposal for  the partnership to be able to have some confidence of a pool of technically qualified people available to run the water facility.

"Director Pucci has identified the staffing as the major issue and it is. I can tell Council and share with the community that we've actually engaged recruiting firms over the last year to try to fill vacant positions in public works,  unsuccessfully except for one position.

You know this is not a small issue, it is not a small challenge ... if we were to have a plant designed and a plant built which would be by private interests because we don't do that. 

We would have to be then faced with the challenge of operating  and if you don't have staff to operate and you don't have a pool of staff to draw from or the ability to attract, you end up with basically a disaster on your hands because you can't run the system, not viable.

So we're facing this reality, this new reality that is perhaps, more continental or even global of competing for resources, competing for staff resources and technically skilled people, this is very difficult. -- City manager Rob Buchan

Doctor Buchan suggested that the approach is not so much that of privatization but that of a service model.

"So What's driving this interest in exploring this not privatization model, but this service model I would say is a better description. Is to be able to have some confidence that we have a pool within a broader service provider of technically qualified people to actually run the water treatment facility. 

So that is perhaps one of the biggest challenges that were facing and that is why we're exploring this at this point" -- City manager Rob Buchan

As the others had, the City Manager also stressed how the process was still in the very early days.

In response to a question from Councillor Adey towards a timeline for the issue and where the public would have a change to offer input,

In reply the Director observed that there would be a review of the expressions of interest received and bring that to Council, at which point Mayor Pond noted that Council could then decide on how to define the public inputs and process that they wish to pursue.

You can review the Director of Operations full report from the City's Agenda for Monday evening.

The full thirty five minute discussion can be reviewed as part of the Council Video from Monday, the topic opens up the evening's council work.

More notes on Monday's Council session can be reviewed through our Council Timeline Feature.

A look at the city's ongoing work on infrastructure themes is available here, while past Council Discussion themes can be reviewed here.

Cross posted from the North Coast Review.