Guelph-Eramosa has endorsed a shared risk management inspector/coordinator with five other municipalities in Wellington County.
At the Dec. 19 meeting council learned the three-year contract worker will be responsible for legislated tasks within the Clean Water Act and the approved Grand River Source Protection Plan in each of the six municipalities.
The Grand River Source Protection Plan came into effect on July 1, and municipalities are now responsible for implementing the outlined policies.
Risk management official Kyle Davis proposed Guelph-Eramosa share the inspector/coordinator with Puslinch, Centre Wellington, Wellington North, Mapleton and Erin, with each paying a portion of the total salary, representative of the work required in each municipality (Minto has hired its own inspector/coordinator).
Davis explained Guelph-Eramosa’s portion of the salary would be $25,680, or 32 per cent.
“Between all seven local municipalities for source water work, and the different types of source water work, Guelph-Eramosa does have a fair bit of work associated with it,” Davis said.
Centre Wellington would also foot 32% of the bill, Erin 12%, Wellington North 12%, Puslinch 9% and Mapleton 3%.
“If this is a benefit to the entire county … why is this coming out of the lower tier budget and not the county budget?” asked councillor Corey Woods.
Mayor Chris White said it is likely because the work that needs to be done is not proportionate across the county.
“If Minto’s got 10% of the work and we’ve got 40% of it why should they, from a county perspective, pay an equal share if it comes out of the county?” White said. “Although it also makes sense to me to have the county managing these county-wide type provincial-led legislation.”
White explained Guelph-Eramosa is “disproportionately” impacted because the City of Guelph is situated in the middle of the municipality.
Woods also asked if Guelph would be paying a portion of the salary for the risk management inspector/coordinator.
“I hope down the line the province gives the municipalities more say when somebody wants to put a well in your area and then they say your tax base has to pay to protect somebody else’s well,” Woods said.
“For instance, if the City of Guelph is going to put a well in Cross Creek and then our tax base has to protect the well. They get mad when Nestlé wants to take their water, but then they want to come in our municipality and take our water and then we have to protect it.
“So we need more powers as a municipality to protect the water for our residents as well as the ratepayers funding the bill to protect that well.”
Council directed Davis to have discussions with the City of Guelph with regard to funding. Puslinch has provided the risk management official with similar instructions.
“Certainly we will pay our fair share for stuff that we’re impacted by, but if something’s directly affecting Guelph … I think it’s important that they pay for what they use,” White said. “I think that’s fair.”
Councillor Mark Bouwmeester asked for an alternative to hiring a shared employee.
“The CAOs have met and this is the only option that’s economically feasible for us at this time,” CAO Ian Roger told him.
“If we hired our own guy we’d be looking for a guy for … a day and a half a week,” White said.
“I mean it also has to have enough volume to make the job itself viable.
“I also think it’s important that water … doesn’t care about municipal borders. I like the idea of having someone that can see the threats all the way around, who knows consistently what’s happening in the whole watershed as opposed to a little backyard.”
Council unanimously endorsed the concept (councillor David Wolk was absent).
In addition to Guelph-Eramosa, as of Jan. 4, Erin, Wellington North, Puslinch, and Centre Wellington had endorsed the shared position for a three-year contract.
