Transport Committee on Oct. 21st, 2010

[Doug Dobrowolski]

Again, we are not experiencing the problem of shortage of materials in Manitoba. As an association, we have been reminding our members constantly that the deadline is in place. Right now, it's a firm deadline. We've been telling them that they must complete their projects, that otherwise it will cost them money. As an association, we have been very proactive in communicating to our members that this deadline is firm at this point. We want to make sure that Manitoba is a success story, which it seems to be, and we're working very well with all levels of government to try to get this done.

[The Chair, Conservative, Merv Tweed]

Merci, monsieur Gaudet.

Mr. Bevington.

[Dennis Bevington, NDP, Western Arctic, NT]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

When this program was initiated, the municipalities were instructed to look for projects that were outside their normal capital project stream. You've mentioned a lot of sewer and water facilities. How did it work out over two years to bring on stream, through the engineering work and all the rest that would have to go with it, a capital project that wasn't identified in your capital programming? Was that a considerable effort on the part of many municipalities?

[Doug Dobrowolski]

Well, no. I can say that it wasn't. I'm very proud of the Manitoba municipalities. They are very good at planning. Yes, the projects might not have been on the financial plan, but they know their needs and have been planning for a while for those water and sewer needs. They know that at some point they have to replace this. It might not have been on their financial plan, but they've had those projects ready.

They've already started engineering, knowing that in the next year or two, even before any announcements, that they were going to have to do these projects anyway. This is a bonus that the federal government came through with this money to help them accelerate those projects and put them on the front burner, so to speak.

[Dennis Bevington, NDP, Western Arctic, NT]

So in reality these projects were planned ahead of time, but they just hadn't been identified in the financial stream. That's what you're saying?

[Doug Dobrowolski]

Yes.

[Dennis Bevington, NDP, Western Arctic, NT]

But they must have been identified in one way, because you wouldn't have been able to do the planning if you didn't have some pre-feasibility or feasibility money for these projects.

[Doug Dobrowolski]

I know that in a lot of cases in Manitoba you're talking about rural pipelines and smaller communities with sewers, which are easy to plan, in my opinion. Yes, obviously a lot of municipalities do have engineering and consulting advice, but again, it has been something they've been planning on for a while, and because this program came to light, it brought everything to the top.

[Dennis Bevington, NDP, Western Arctic, NT]

So it seems that there was a fair bit of flexibility in regard to that particular item, because I know that was something that was brought up at the beginning as being very important. These things are separate from the normal capital stream. So obviously the federal government has been pretty flexible about how to deal with that right from day one, is that correct?

[Doug Dobrowolski]

Yes.

[Dennis Bevington, NDP, Western Arctic, NT]

Okay. Good.

Now, you have 198 municipalities and 73 projects. How many municipalities are identified with those 73 projects?

[Doug Dobrowolski]

There were a lot more that applied than were accepted. I think everyone put in an application, but of course the problem was that a lot of them, because of the short timeline of getting your project in, could not come up with their third. As I mentioned, with the barriers of municipal board hearings and things like that, a lot of municipalities just don't have that third in the bank, so they have to go to a borrowing bylaw to get their one-third.

[Dennis Bevington, NDP, Western Arctic, NT]

But would the 73 projects be in 73 different communities—

[Doug Dobrowolski]

No.

[Dennis Bevington, NDP, Western Arctic, NT]

—or would they be lumped, like 10 in Winnipeg, or 20 or...?

[Doug Dobrowolski]

Yes.

[Dennis Bevington, NDP, Western Arctic, NT]

So how many actual municipalities would you say got stimulus money?

[Doug Dobrowolski]

There were 73 communities that got this.

[Dennis Bevington, NDP, Western Arctic, NT]

So Winnipeg only got one stimulus project?

[Doug Dobrowolski]

No. They had several, I believe.

[Dennis Bevington, NDP, Western Arctic, NT]

So it would be fewer than 73 communities that would have gotten stimulus projects.

Now, the government has been saying that if they gave some flexibility on the timeline, there's going to be some blowback on the part of the other municipalities, perhaps from the ones that didn't get a project or didn't try to get a project because they didn't feel they could complete it in the timeframe, or for one reason or the other.

Do you sense that there's any blowback in Manitoba if you extend a timeframe for communities to have projects?

[Doug Dobrowolski]

No, because as I mentioned earlier, Manitoba municipalities are very good at planning. They know their fiscal capacity, and they know—

[Dennis Bevington, NDP, Western Arctic, NT]

No, I meant the communities that didn't get a project, that maybe didn't apply because they recognized that within their planning process they didn't have the time to complete it. Do you think any of those municipalities are going to come back and say, “Look, how come you're extending the deadline here when we didn't know about this prior to the time...?”

[Doug Dobrowolski]

No, I believe not.

[Dennis Bevington, NDP, Western Arctic, NT]

Because that's really the argument the government's using here to say that we shouldn't be too flexible with this timeline: that it's unfair to the other communities. Do you get any sense like that at all?