MOOSE JAW – Moose Jaw’s city council has been involved in a lengthy debate about how to pay for replacing 80 kilometres worth of cast iron water mains, and it may become a decision for the general public.
Councillor Heather Eby brought forward a motion to make using a Local Improvement Program (LIP) to fund the replacement a ballot issue in the October 26 civic election.
Council voted in favour of using LIP on April 25. This model will see the city pay for 70 per cent of the replacement cost and affected property owners pay 30 per cent. The cost was recently estimated at $566 per frontage foot.
Bills wouldn’t be submitted until the first phase of construction is complete. Then residents would choose whether to pay a lump sum or add it to their property taxes over 20 years.
About a third of the property owners in Moose Jaw would have to pay under LIP
Eby, who voted in favour of using LIP, presented her question as follows:
“Should the City of Moose Jaw proceed with the LIP funding model for the Cast Iron Water Main Replacement project, that will see the community as a whole fund 70 per cent of the total cost of the project and the effected landowners fund 30 per cent of the total costs of the project?
1. I am in favour of this funding model.
2. I am opposed to this funding model. “
The wording of the question was subject to plenty of debate, as opponents feared it may pause water main replacement, it didn’t cover enough, and concerns on how the city would choose an alternate funding option.
An amendment to reword the motion was voted down in a 3-3 vote. Councillor Patrick Boyle was absent, and ties result in a vote being defeated.
“It was clear, it deals with the situation we’re in now, because really, the LIP has been approved by council, so it would have been a straight yes or no question,” Mayor Deb Higgins said.
The motion to use this question as the basis for a referendum was also defeated in a 3-3 vote.
However, there may still be a referendum on using LIP to fund cast iron water main replacements.
Citizens Advocating Sensible Taxation (CAST) will officially be launching a petition to put a referendum on the ballot that they feel covers their concerns with Eby’s question.
CAST’s question is as follows:
“That the City of Moose Jaw’s replacement of water and sewer mains be funded from general city-wide revenues and/or the reserve funds, and not from LIP special assessments.”
“I was hoping we’d be able to come to a consensus on what should be on the ballot and be able to go forward without the machinations of a petition,” CAST spokesperson Terry Gabel explained.
Before CAST’s petition can land on the October 26 ballot they need signatures from 10 per cent of Moose Jaw’s eligible electorate, about 3,500 people, and it needs to be submitted before July 1, 2016.