Concerns are being raised by councillors about Westario’s policies for developers.
Councillor David Turton said concerns being made by Brockton regarding Westario power policies and operations were worth reading. Turton referred to costs being incurred by area developers, sometimes being unable to get “up front” quotes or estimates.
“And then when the time comes to pay the bill, it is not 100% accurate,” he said.
Deputy-mayor Judy Dirksen asked if there is any reason to act on those concerns. Turton said Brockton’s decision was to forward the concerns to all Westario Power stakeholder municipalities, “to make them aware of the issues and concerns.”
Brockton (the Walkerton area) further asked those stakeholder municipalities to ask their local representative to bring the concerns forward to the Westario board of directors.
Turton said he believes there is a need to support this. Dirksen said she was at the meeting where the letter was drafted and called the letter an accurate report of the meeting.
Mayor David Anderson said the matter came up at the annual meeting in Hanover. However, he added that for a lot of contractors and developers coming into a municipality, part of Westario’s policy is asking for the establishment of a line of credit when installing streetlights or anything else.
“It is no different for municipalities when a new developer comes into a municipality,” Anderson said.
Municipalities, too, seek a line of credit.
“We (as a municipality) do incur a lot of costs, and if the developer walks away … We’re not left high and dry.” He said the power company works in the same fashion in that regard. If a developer is installing large infrastructure, the company is asking for a line of credit.
Anderson added most utilities do the same thing, including Hydro One.
“There’s always been that issue that someone goes out asking for a costing on an upgrade. There’s been issues in the past where the job has gotten to the point of getting done, the costs have been 40 to 50 to 80% more.”
Anderson agreed the issue could be considered at the next council session.
