Centre Wellington council agreed at its committee of the whole meeting on Monday to seek over $10-million in grants to upgrade the Elora sewage treatment plant.
Township Treasurer Wes Snarr said the upgrade is the only project that meets all the criteria for the grant. It is the Building Canada Fund, Communities Component. It is funded by the federal and provincial governments at one-third each, and the municipality pays the final third.
The cost of the upgrade to the sewage treatment plant is $15.6-million, meaning each level of government would have to provide $5.2-million.
Snarr said that he has heard of other municipalities’ grant applications, and noted that some of them do not meet even half the criteria set down by federal and provincial officials.
He said of Centre Wellington’s bid for the treatment plant, “It has the best chance of being approved.”
But some councillors were leery, because that is a very large amount of money.
Councillor Kirk McElwain asked if the township has enough money in its budget for its own share.
Snarr cited a recent payment from the slots facility, over $610,000, and suggested that the funds will be flowing over the two to three years as the project is built.
Councillor Fred Morris asked engineer Dale Murray what is the total amount of federal and provincial grant money .
Murray said it is $200-million, and that there are about 300 municipalities that are eligible to apply for a portion of it.
Murray added, “I think this project is a good one … I think you can put together a pretty good business plan for this one.”
Councillor Bob Foster asked what is the township’s “probability of success” for its application.
Murray replied, “I wish I could tell you. You’re asking for a lot of money here.”
But, he said, the scoring criteria being sought matches the local application very well. “There’s a number of bullets you have to hit on – and you scored on every one of them,” he said of the grant criteria.
Mayor Joanne Ross-Zuj said this is exactly the type of project the grant is set up to fund. She noted it will not only help the township meet the province growth targets, but it will also return a better quality of water to the Grand River, and that means better drinking water at cities downstream who use the Grand River for their water supply.
Murray said the application must be in by Nov. 21, and he suspects the township will learn its fate by next March or April.
He said that if all goes well, work could start as early as 2010.
Murray explained that this grant is unique. He noted the old Canada Ontario Municipal Infrastructure Funding (COMRIF) grant was not about growth related projects, but this grant is about promoting growth. It meets provincial policy guidelines, which call for growth in Centre Wellington.
He added that also unlike COMRIF, this program does not insist on construction ready projects, and the township would have until 2016 to complete the work.
Councillor Kirk McElwain wanted to know about the risk of delays. He cited the 8th Line bridge in Pilkington. That project received a grant for over $600,000 from each of the federal and provincial governments about five years ago, but it has yet to be built because the increasing costs outstripped the amount of the grant. When the bridge reached nearly $4-million earlier this year, council dropped it from the 2008 budget as being too expensive.
McElwain wondered what will happen if cost increases hit this project the same way.
Murray said the application took inflation into account when the numbers were crunched.
“You might as well go high,” he said. “We’ve tried to be generous with the estimates.”
Councillor Walt Visser noted that Fergus had increased capacity at its sewage treatment plant in 1994, and in 2004 it doubled its capacity again. He asked when was the last time Elora had an increase in its capacity.
Murray said that happened in the mid 1970s.
Council then voted to approve the bid to expand the plant. It carried unanimously.
