The lowest bidder for the Collingwood water treatment plant expansion – Kenaidan – has agreed to give the Town of Collingwood more time to figure out funding solutions for the project, agreeing to extend their bid to Jan. 16, 2024.
To kick off their special council meeting on Nov. 9, Mayor Yvonne Hamlin made the announcement before introducing the chair of the town’s newly formed developers and municipalities task force, Jay Beech, to provide a short presentation on the work the task force has done to date.
The deadline for the town to accept a bid for the project had previously been Nov. 11.
“This adds 66 days for the bid validity,” Hamlin told councillors. “They’ve committed to go back to their suppliers and contractors to seek support for an extension.”
“We’ll use the time to work with our potential funding partners and developers,” she said.
Beech is vice president of Georgian Communities, an arm of Simcoe County developer Georgian International. The company is the developer behind The Victoria Annex project in Collingwood, as well as the Windfall at Blue Mountain and Mountain House at Windfall development projects in the Town of the Blue Mountains.
During his presentation on Thursday, Beech noted the new task force has met five times so far since it was struck earlier in October.
The task force is comprised of members of municipal government including mayors and CAOs from Collingwood, Clearview, the Town of the Blue Mountains and New Tecumseth. On the developer/consultant side, Beech is one of five voices, which include Dan Hurley, president of Tatham Engineering, Brittany Robertson of Crozier Engineering and president of the Georgian Triangle Development Institute, Ken Hale of Great Gulf and vice president of the Georgian Triangle Development Institute and Larry Law, owner of Living Water Resort.
“Before today’s meeting, it was really getting us up to speed on the background, including presentations from the consulting engineer AECOM,” Beech told councillors.
Beech said the main purpose of the task force is to evaluate options to fund the building of the facility, which will include assisting the town in seeking funding from provincial and federal governments. He said the extension of the bid was important to the task force.
“It is imperative we buy more time to make the right decision,” said Beech.
According to information released by the town on Sept. 12, updated costs for the Raymond A. Barker water treatment plant expansion are now estimated at $270 million, with an extended timeline to completion in 2028.
Three bids received Sept. 12 from pre-qualified contractors started at $212 million.
In March 2022, the estimate for the construction of the treatment plant was $121 million, with an expected completion date of 2026.
This is the second time the estimated construction costs have doubled. The March estimates jumped from about $60 million to $120 million.
The town's water treatment plant has been nearing capacity, running over 80 per cent in 2021. Since then, the town has added some more capacity with more infrastructure at the plant, but the plan was to have an expanded treatment plant operating by 2026.
Collingwood supplies treated drinking water to New Tecumseth via a pipeline connecting the two municipalities. Collingwood and New Tecumseth have had an agreement in place since 2008 specifying that Collingwood provides 6,000 cubic metres per day of treated drinking water to New Tecumseth.
An expanded water treatment plant would allow that number to increase under a deal struck between the two municipalities in 2022.
“It sounds like a big number,” Beech said at Thursday’s meeting. “But, considering the growth... it supports a project of this size.”
“Jan. 16 will come very quickly. We’re committed to providing more recommendations to the group to move forward,” he said.
Hamlin noted during her comments at Thursday’s meeting that she had heard from community members that there was concern about council regularly going in-camera to discuss the matter. She said council is required to go in-camera to receive legal advice, which would continue.
“But, I wanted to assure the public that any (decisions on) funding commitments to be made, or any risk the town would assume, will be made in open session because this council is committed to an open and transparent decision-making process,” said Hamlin.
