By Sebastian Kanally, Times Chronicle

Numerous questions were raised around switching to electric vehicles and the lack of building projects during Oliver’s discussion about their 2025 capital expenditures. 

Oliver’s first look at the capital expenditures part of the budget process brought mixed reactions from councillors, along with early approval for five projects in relation to the Ditch Canal. 

One topic that caused discussion was Director of Operations Kelly Mercer’s commitment to only purchasing electric vehicles for the town going forward. 

“All of the vehicles that we are looking to purchase from now on at this point are electric vehicles, to try and meet our 2030 climate action plan, and to basically have that transition,” Mercer explained. 

In the budget plan for 2025 was the purchase of two new fully electric vehicles for the town’s use. One pickup truck at a cost of $90,000, which Mercer noted is a $20,000 increase over the option to purchase a gasoline-powered truck. 

The second truck, a two-ton replacement truck, was also budgeted to cost $180,000 in 2025.  

Mercer explained that this is a move that the town can make that would result in a “great reduction in emissions”. He further explained that they are trying to get ahead of the targets and Canada is planning to stop production of gas-powered vehicles in the next decade. 

Mayor Martin Johansen commented that “I would like to see the business case associated with that, lower cost of operating and maintenance”.

Johansen also noted that instead of just covering the cost of these more expensive vehicles out of the equipment reserve, he was wondering if they could be offset by money in the Climate Action Reserve.  

John Kurvink, Chief Financial Officer (CFO) commented that he was under the assumption the town was buying gasoline-powered vehicles. “I didn’t realize the intent was to buy electric in 2025. So, you are right Mayor, we could move that money a bit differently”. 

The town will be coming back to council with a business case and a comparison with purchasing gas versus electric vehicles. 

Along with this talk of purchasing equipment and vehicles, Councillor David Mattes expressed his struggles with the outlook for 2025 because it lacks any tangible building and investing in the community. 

 “I know we are buying a lot of trucks and sweepers. What are we building? Not a thing. There is not a thing on the list that we are going to be building, improving, or changing this year. I struggle with that. I can’t see us taking a year off from looking after our town. I recognize we need equipment and those sorts of things, but we need to invest in roads, water and sewer.” 

The total capital expenditures for 2025 are planned to be around $2.7 million. As a part of this, roads for example only account for $119,500 and building in general is pegged at $125,000. 

Mercer did explain that although there are no large building projects planned for 2025, part of the budget does include $75,000 for external design work and project analysis for the year.

This investment is in an effort to create an inventory of building shovel-ready projects for future grant applications. 

Mattes responded by expressing his discontent with designing so many projects if they are not being built. Such as a project to design the sidewalk on Tuc-el-Nuit Drive between McKinney Road and Park Drive which was planned for 2025, yet the town did not plan on building it until 2030. 

Mercer commented that design work needs to be completed so that the town can be ready for any grants that may come along for specific things. 

“These projects have to fit into these little boxes” and if they do not have the design work done, they may miss a grant opportunity. 

After the discussion, the town agreed to make a plan to bring the Station Street road project which will be from Fairview Road to Co-op Ave and Sawmill Road, which is a shovel ready project, into 2025. The town will have to find grant money to make this happen. 

The other decision council made during the Jan. 6 meeting was to provide early approval for five projects associated with the canal that must be completed before it opens this spring. 

Mercer explained that one of these projects is a “very critical piece”. 

“We actually can’t even open the canal right now without doing the siphon control gate,” he explained. 

“It got crushed and we can’t close that portion of the canal off for the water to pass and go under the town, it would all bypass and go back to the river.”

He explained that the gate rusted through and when they went to close the control gate, it “concaved”. 

There was nothing wrong with the system itself he noted, “It’s a great system, it just aged out.”

This siphon control gate project will cost up to $50,000 which will be taken out of the water reserve. 

The other projects that received early approval were Road 2 intake screens at a cost of up to $115,000. An Ionizer redesign and revamp project at a cost of up to $50,000.  

The Hester Pumphouse new flow meter project will cost up to $25,000, and the Fairview Pumphouse new flow meter project at a cost of up to $30,000. 

The money for all of these projects totalling $270,000 will come out of the town’s water reserve. 

This discussion on the 2025 capital expenditures came after council decided on December 2, 2024, to set the utility rate bylaws. This set increases of four per cent for water rates and increases of three per cent for sewer rates. 

The town will be continuing their budget discussions at their upcoming meetings which are as follows: 

  • February 24, 2025 – Presentation of Draft 2025-2029 Financial Plan
  • February 25 – March 26, 2025 – Public Feedback Period
  • March 31, 2025 – Presentation of 2025-2029 Financial Plan
  • April 22, 2025 – Adoption of 2025-2029 Financial Plan
  • May 12, 2025 – Adoption of the 2025 Tax Bylaw