FUNDING OF HART HIGHLANDS LOCAL AREA SERVICE

Presenters:

Dale Grieves and

Sylvia Korotash

October 20, 2014

•OBJECTIVE 1

•HISTORICAL 2

•GRANT FUNDING 3

•

• ICAL

D

•Priority Grant Funding for the Proposed Hart Highlands Phase II LAS

1

OBJECTIVE

E

r t

OBJECTIVE

• We are asking the Mayor and Council to address what seems to be a disparity with previous Hart Highlands property owners who received funding grants for installation of sanitary sewer connections.

• NOW is the time to plan as funding grants will be coming available over the next ten years. The residents are frustrated after asking for fair and equal treatment for OVER 37 years and Council may have the ability to act now and reduce costs for connections of the remaining sanitary sewer connections (in particular the proposed Phase II development of 100 homes on Killarney, Wildwood and Sussex).

•HISTORICAL •1975-Present

2

1975-1980 1975: Amalgamation in January [Ref 1]

1977: Hart Trunk line & lift station part of 5-year upgrade project [Ref 2, 3]

1979: City completed $7 million Hart Highway sanitary sewer installations; 75% grant funding [Ref 4]

1980: Residents on Nixon receive grants [Ref 5]

1984 Feb: Hart Highlands property owners send letter to Mayor & Council asking for commitment on completion of sewers [Ref 6]

April: Reply letter outlined various reports on sewage matters north of Nechako [Ref 7]

– Provincial government had provided 75% grants which was reduced to 25% grants

1994 Aug: Letter from City indicating past request for LAS in Hart Highlands area [Ref 8]

• “The magnitude of this project is rather large and thus highly dependent on grants from senior levels of government.”

• “Should such grants materialize, construction could commence in 1995 and be completed in 1996.”

• Eighteen (18) years have since passed without sanitary connections!

1995

Jan 26: Edgewood Terrace Sanitary Sewer requires approval of $1.3 million government infrastructure grant [Ref 9]

– Total project cost is $2.2 million

July 18: Letter from City to Edgewood Terrace property owners indicates Provincial grant for 25% approved for sanitary sewer collection systems [Ref 10]

2001

Oct 30: Notice from City (Infrastructure Planning Div/Development Services) of a public meeting for Nov 14

Dec 27: Follow up letter from City with info package, including a Property Owner Survey, sent to 308 homes [Ref 11]

2002

July 5: Letter from City to Hart Highlands Subdivision property owners states [Ref 12]:

• Survey results:

– 89% do not support a project without a grants

– 95% indicated the grant should cover 50% of the project cost

• Council asks staff to prepare grant application under Canada-BC Infrastructure Program for $5.3 million

– Outcome never shared with residents

2014 • City notifies the proposed Phase II property

owners on Killarney, Wildwood and Sussex (100 homes) of Feb 18 mtg where preliminary cost estimates & detailed information to date would be shared [Ref 13]

• Property owner survey handed out at meeting [Ref 14]

– The question was stated: “I/We would support a local area service project for the installation of sanitary sewers.”

• Yes or No box and a box for comments.

2014

Response to survey [Ref 15]

• Indicated residents are in favor of further proposals

• The City will host a meeting in the late fall of 2014 with more information & projected costs.

City of Prince George sent letter to residents on surveying work being done for LAS phase II [Ref 16]

2014

June 9: Meeting with Mike Morris, MLA, Prince George Mackenzie

• Grants not YET released from Federal Government

Aug 28: Meeting with Constituency Assistant for Bob Zimmer, MP, Prince George Peace River

UNANSWERED QUESTIONS to the City Administrative Staff: 1) Funding Source Grant (Applications)

2) Pavement Assessment

3) Design of Sanitary Main & Service

4) Field investigation including survey of

project area & cost estimates per

household

5) LAS projects from the past 7 yrs

including final budget costs

•GRANTS 3

History

• Amalgamation

– Province making grants to offset costs of restructuring [ref 17, 18]

• In early 80’s funding became scarce [ref 7, 19]

Rational

• Promises made in amalgamation [Ref 17, 18]

• Disparity in what others received [Ref 4, 10]

• Astronomical costs

• Health issues –fields are failing

• A new 10-year plan in place with New Building Canada Fund and Gas Tax Fund [Ref

20, 21]

City Response to Questions

April 23 • City responds to questions emailed by resident

March 19 including [ref 22]: – Federal/provincial infrastructure grants – Road rehabilitation work – Information on previous Sewer connections with

grants: • No ability to provide information on previous

grants for other sanitary sewer LAS projects in past

• Told would need to fill out Freedom of Information paperwork and costs would be involved

New Building Canada Fund - Small Communities Fund

• Application based [Ref 23]

• Applications not ready to be accepted by Prov/Fed government [Ref 22]

• Infrastructure Resource Officer, Liard McLachlin, with Ministry of Community, Sport & Cultural Development said may not be ready until 2016

• New Building Canada Plan focused on projects contributing to Canada’s economic growth & prosperity [Ref 23]

Community Improvement Fund

Consists of two parts [Ref 24, 25, 26]:

• Gas Tax Fund

• Incremental Goods & Services Tax Rebates for Municipalities

UBCM

• Community Works Fund (CWF) [Ref 27]

– Based on per capita formula with funding floor

– Delivered twice annually

– Local government makes choices about which eligible projects to fund • Eligible projects include:

– Waste water [Ref 28]

– Public transit

• UBCM Gas Tax Agreement [Ref 29]

• CWF Allocations Year 1 – 5 (2014/15 – 2018/19) [Ref 30]

Summary

Mayor & Council have ability to act and support: • Promises made in amalgamation

• Disparity in what others received

• 10-year funding plan in place

• Septic systems are reaching their life expectancy (systems failing = health issue)

• Road in LAS area in desperate need of repair and gets heavy use as a school & transit bus route

These are astronomical costs • We have been waiting 37 years; keep the promise

REFERENCES 1. Hansard. Jan 14 1977. Morning Sitting. Pg 35. 2. City of Prince George letter to property owner. Re: Hart Highway Sanitary Sewer System.

Sept 19 1977. 3. Notice to pursuant to sections 616 & 589 Municipal Act. Sept 28 1977. 4. Prince George Citizen. March 28 1980. 5. Prince George Citizen. April 17 1980. 6. Property owner letter to Mayor & Council. Re: Commitment on completion of sewers. Feb

13 1984. 7. City of Prince George letter to property owner. Re: Copies of various reports on sewage

matters north of Nechako. April 17 1984. 8. City of Prince George letter to property owners. Re: Sanitary sewer system – Hart

Highlands Aug 16 1994. 9. Prince George Citizen. Jan 26 1995. 10. City of Prince George letter to property owner. Re: Installation of sanitary sewer collection

system – Edgewood Terrace July 18 1995. 11. City of Prince George letter to property owners. Re: Hart Highlands sanitary sewer local

improvement project. Dec 27 2001. 12. City of Prince George letter to property owners. Re: Survey results. July 5 2002. 13. City of Prince George letter to property owners. Re: Killarney, Wildwood, & Sussex

sanitary sewer local area service. Jan 30 2014. 14. Property owner survey. Re: local area service project for sanitary sewers. Return March 7

2014.

REFERENCES continued 15. Email from Hayley Sedola, Engineering Assistant, City of Prince George. Re: Killarney sanitary sewer

extension LAS – informal survey results. March 19 2014. 16. City of Prince George to property owners. Hart Highlands sanitary sewer LAS – Phase 2. Re: Survey

Work. Sept 29 2014. 17. Hansard. May 2 1974. Afternoon Sitting. Pg. 2758. 18. Hansard. Feb 28 1975. Afternoon Sitting. Pg 268 . 19. Hansard. May 3 1982. Afternoon Sitting. Pg 7334. 20. Infrastructure Canada. Generating economic growth and prosperity – project categories.

http://www.infrastructure.gc.ca/plan/pc-cp-eng.html 21. Infrastructure Canada. The Federal Gas Tax Fund: Permanent and predictable funding for

municipalities. http://www.infrastructure.gc.ca/plan/gtf-fte-eng.html 22. Email from Hayley Sedola, Engineering Assistant, City of Prince George. Re: Response to questions

posed March 19 2014. April 23 2014. 23. Infrastructure Canada. New Building Fund: Provincial –Territorial Infrastructure Component – Small

Communities Fund. http://www.infrastructure.gc.ca/plan/sc-cp-eng.html 24. Infrastructure Canada. New Building Canada Plan: The largest and longest federal infrastructure plan in

Canadian history. http://www.infrastructure.gc.ca/plan/nbcp-npcc-eng.html 25. Community Improvement Fund/Canada’s Economic Action Plan.

http://actionplan.gc.ca/en/initiative/community-improvement-fund 26. Infrastructure Canada-Building Canada – Modern infrastructure for a strong Canada.

http://www.infrastructure.gc.ca/prog/doc/booklet-livret09-eng.html 27. UBCM. Community Works Fund. http://www.ubcm.ca/EN/main/funding/renewed-gas-tax-

agreement/community-works-fund.html 28. Infrastructure Canada. Federal Gas Tax Fund Project Profiles. http://www.infrastructure.gc.ca/prog/gtf-

fte-prof-eng.html 29. UBCM. Renewed Gas Tax Agreement. http://www.ubcm.ca/EN/main/funding/renewed-gas-tax-

agreement.html 30. Union of BC Municipalities Gas Tax Agreement Community Works Fund Allocations.

http://www.ubcm.ca/assets/Funding~Programs/Renewed~Gas~Tax~Agreement/Community~Works~Fund/1.%202014-GTA-Allocation-Web-Final.pdf