ERIN – With just days to submit their water financial plan to the province, Erin council approved their plan at a special council meeting Thursday afternoon.
Submitting a water financial plan to the province is one of the five steps a municipality has to go through to have a drinking water licence.
This report to the province is due May 31.
The financial plan, prepared by Watson & Associates Economics, was brought to council at a May 19 meeting but was referred back to staff for more information.
Councillor Michael Robins was noticeably frustrated with the report and said he felt it communicates the wrong message about possible growth in the town to residents.
“If we as of May 28 indicate that we believe in a low-growth scenario it doesn’t strike me as being consistent with what our plans are,” Robins said. “You did what you did, but to me it’s not reflective of where we’re going, what we’re doing and how we’re investing the funds of the people of Erin.”
Gary Scandlan of Watson & Associates explained to Robins that the financial plan could change to reflect current realities and projected growth would likely happen four or five years down the line. Scandlan said they could note at the beginning of the document that
The water financial plan is meant to be advertised to the public to be read but councillor John Brennan said he didn’t think it is an effective communication tool.
Brennan spoke frankly about his frustration with how late this plan came to council.
“I think that as a best practice going forward, we should look at trying to do these things well in advance,” Brennan said to council. “I’m not really happy that this came to us at the last meeting we had scheduled before the deadline. We need to try and get these things in front of council with enough room for us to say, ‘Yeah let’s have a second look at this.’”
Mayor Allan Alls said there was no point in speculating on what could have been.
“We’re aware where we are at this stage of the game, so I don’t think there’s much point in crying over spilled milk,” Alls said to council. “Maybe we could have had it sooner or maybe not but it’s there.”
Robins said he struggled with some inconsistencies between different reports from Watson & Associates regarding recommendations for how much to invest into their assets.
“At some point we have to come up with some consistency between these various reports,” Robins said. “Somehow we have to come up with a view of our future as opposed to three or four different views of how we’re going to invest for the future.”
Erin council unanimously passed to approve the report and to send it to the province.
