Greater attention must be paid to future financing of capital projects for the municipality to keep up with work demands, council heard last week.
“I think we’ve known for many years that there would be future liabilities that we faced from the risk of climate change, from failing infrastructure, all of the equipment and assets that we have to look after,” said chief financial officer Kristen Watson during a Committee of the Whole on March 27.
The meeting was held as part of this year’s municipal (BIM) budget consultation process, which wrapped up last Friday. Results from the public consultation, including individuals and committees, will be discussed at the upcoming April 11 council meeting.
Watson says BIM needs to begin contributing to a variety of capital reserve funds through annual contributions, typically over the course of 10 years. She explained this was an approach used by past councils, but one which expired in 2021.
Engineering director Patrick Graham joined Watson for the presentation and detailed some of the capital work in the years ahead which will make setting aside money today necessary. He explained not every project will be taking place imminently, but that even those happening beyond five years need attention now.
Perhaps the largest individual project on the horizon is Phase 2 upgrades to the Snug Cove Wastewater Treatment Plant. Phase 1 work on the Dorman Road site is expected to be completed this month, connecting already existing properties along with a few in progress.
Any future growth in the Cove will require the far more substantial Phase 2 work however. Graham estimates this will cost around $7 million, including $500,000 for design work, $5.5 million for the actual upgrades, and another $1 million for design and replacement of the outfall. An approximate 100 metre squared size of land in neighbouring Crippen Park will also need to be acquired from Metro Vancouver to make room for the work.
Graham said this project could be stretched over a long period of time, even 20 years, and completed in segments such as phased design work or delaying the outfall portion.
Big price tags for service yard and MUP
An overhaul of the public works service yard on Carter Road will be a more immediate fix, and is estimated to cost around $3.5 million. Plans haven’t been finalized yet but the proposed idea has been for a full redesign of the yard, including a new works building and garage.
Given the current timeline this work would be applied to the 2024/25 budgets. For this year, $160,000 will be spent to install a temporary trailer on the site – the old one has become a health hazard to municipal staff for a number of reasons – and complete environmental assessment work in hopes of lifting a provincial building ban imposed after it was discovered the site was contaminated.
Work on the Multi-Use Path (MUP) will also incur higher costs as the trail runs into challenging mid-island terrain. The path has received strong grant support though, including a combined $990,000 from four grants for the next stretch from its current end-point at Artisan Lane to the nearby Charlie’s Lane. The total cost of this Phase 4 is around $1.6 million.
The entire Artisan Lane to Grafton Lake portion of the MUP is estimated at $3.150 million. The cost of Grafton Lake to Harding Road construction will be borne by the development company operating in the area, and the final MUP run from Harding Road to Bowen Bay Road will cost around $5 million.
One of the larger long-term projects will be road rehabilitation. Graham says repairs and upkeep on the approximately 500,000 square metres of island roads will run around $30 million over the next three decades. He suggested a contribution of $1 million a year over that time period to keep up.
Naturally road health is closely linked to that of culverts, which is the biggest reason for road failure. Bowen’s 343 municipal culverts are in need of varying stages of repair, which Graham estimates at around $18 million. He estimated it would take about $855,000 a year for the next 20 years to cover these costs.
Specific road projects include addressing the Carter Road bridge, which was identified as an issue in 2016 and has become unsafe for large vehicles such as buses. Design and replacement will cost around $850,000. More work on the storm sewer system under Bowen Island Trunk Road is also needed. Repairs were completed on the north side of the road last year following a sink hole collapse, but fixes also need to happen across the street on the south side. Graham says these should happen in the next five to 10 years and will run about $800,000.
Work trucks need replacing
In terms of the fleet and equipment needed to perform that, and other road work, Graham says a pair of new trucks should be a priority. One of the trucks will need to be replaced this year, and staff have said the department should also trade one of their five-tonne trucks for a one-tonne truck since it would better perform the island’s specific needs. Factoring in auction of the old trucks, the pair would cost around $200,000.
Graham added acquiring an excavator would vastly increase the amount of work BIM could do on their own, such as ditch cleaning and emergency response, instead of looking elsewhere for help. This would cost around $130,000. Improved equipment to perform maintenance jobs on the MUP, including plowing and sweeping, would be around $50,000.
Other work Graham noted included geotechnical risk mitigation on some of Bowen’s rockier roads. Taylor Road work of this kind was completed in 2021, costing $350,000 total. Future mitigation efforts need to take place at Woods Road, which will be around $750,000, and Eagle Cliff Road, at about $250,000. Engineers still need to nail down the scope and cost of these and other areas, and decide what methods (bolts, mesh, etc.) will be best to reduce rockfall risks.
BIM will also incur some capital costs from upgrade projects in the Bluewater Park and Eagle Cliff water systems, though the majority of these will be paid by residents of the local service areas. The municipal portion of around $880,000 for Bluewater Park and $550,000 for Eagle Cliff will cover culvert repairs.
Graham said he is looking forward to development of the upcoming Asset Management Plan, as the one conducted in 2019 by a prior chief financial officer has not been very useful for his department. “It’s been very difficult to understand where the assumptions and conclusions in this report came from,” said the director, noting many of the spreadsheet calculations for public works projects have been well off the mark.
“It raises a lot of questions about how much we can rely on this (old version)… It’s almost like we’re developing a new plan,” said Graham of the need for an updated version.
“We do need to have better capital replacement requirements and cost estimates for all of the categories,” concluded Graham on his goals for municipal budgeting moving forward.
