By Steve Hubrecht
Last week’s Canal Flats council meeting once again saw plenty of questions from the new councillors, and once again many of those questions were about the housing society and water upgrades.
A byelection in early September saw two new councillors — Andrew Weitzel and Paul Marcil — voted in, and both promised during their campaign to address two issues that had caused a stir in the village: a perceived conflict of interest involving the village’s chief administrative officer and companies owned by the CAO’s son; and upgrades to the village’s water system.
And indeed during the first council meeting after the byelection, Weitzel and Marcil did ask questions seeking clarification on both topics. Then last week, at the Monday, Oct. 28 council meeting, they asked more questions.
Weitzel asked about the Canal Flats Attainable Housing and Childcare Society, which is leading the village’s planned affordable housing-medical technology project. That project involves Lilo Health, a company that includes the CAO’s son. Weitzel suggested the society produce a table showing project-related expenditures and funding received, which the village can share with the public.
Such a table could be quarterly and could show the prior-year spend; the year-to-date spend; a forecast for the rest of the year spend; and an estimate for spending at project completion; as well as any variances in the budget, outlined Weitzel.
“It would show how that money is being used toward the project itself, and help us understand how the money is being spent and used,” he said, adding he wasn’t sure if that might be too onerous for the society, which is comprised of volunteers.
“I don’t think that is going to be too cumbersome. It will also be a lot more information for us (council) as well,” agreed Canal Flats mayor Mark Doherty.
Weitzel and Marcil asked questions about water system upgrades. Councillor Justin Stanbury explained that the village’s water committee plans to have budgets to present at upcoming community meetings.
Marcil asked if adding an extra pump (or several) might help with the village’s poor water flow. The flow needs to be better, particularly in cases of fighting structure fires to meet insurance requirements. Stanbury outlined that modelling done by engineers does take that into account, but “we’re mostly restricted by pipes . . . the amount of water we can push, metre per second, through smaller pipes.”
Although there are some large pipes in several parts of the village, “there are also a lot of places that (pipes) are undersized,” added Doherty.
Stanbury noted the modelling is quite sophisticated and easily shows what will happen with various possible tweaks and changes the village might make with its water system. “I’m hoping they (the engineers) can show us some of that modelling in the meeting. I think everybody can understand (the water system problems) a bit better,” said Stanbury.
Marcil said the village should spread out the water committee’s presentations or repeat them several times so that a wide array of villagers can attend. “It’s (the water upgrades) such an issue,” said Marcil.
Canal Flats corporate officer Sylvie Hoobanoff was acting chief administrative officer during the October 28 council meeting, as she was during the previous October 15 council meeting. Regular chief administrative officer Richard Wayken is on a leave of absence for personal reasons.
