The raw water pump house supplies the water treatment facility from the North Saskatchewan River. Parts of the pump house building are nearly 100 years old. (Michael Joel-Hansen/paNOW Staff)

By Alison Sandstrom

infrastructure matters

Did penny-pinching cost city of P.A. on pump house price?

Nov 19, 2019 | 5:42 PM

Prince Albert city councillors are grappling with news that the cost of a new facility at the water treatment plant will be over double the amount quoted to them by a consulting firm last year.

The revelations come on the heels of the completion of separate $14 million upgrades to the plant.

At a meeting on Monday night, questions were raised about how the city awards contracts, and where the $10 million required for the construction of a new raw water pump house will now come from.

The facility in question supplies the treatment plant with water from the North Saskatchewan River. Portions of the existing building date back to the 1920s and the pump house is in need of replacement.

In 2018 the city hired the Saskatoon-based engineering firm WSP Canada Inc. to complete an initial assessment of the pump house. Of the seven firms that submitted proposals, city administration recommended the lowest bidder, WSP, and city council approved the tender in May, 2018.

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WSP estimated the cost of a new facility would be $4.54 million.

City council has now learned that price was substantially underestimated, according to a city report.

A different firm currently contracted with delivering a detailed design of the new facility now says the cost of the new pump house will likely be $10.1 million based on a variety of factors a city report says WSP did not take into consideration. In addition, a new federal regulation to protect fish added $1 million to the project for the purchase of specialized screens.

“This is totally skewed,” Coun. Blake Edwards told council. “I don’t get how a professional organization can come in and go six million dollars [under.]”

The required four-storey excavation required for the new pump house is a major contributing factor to its cost, according to city staff (Council Agenda Package/City of P.A.)

Other councillors around the table echoed his dismay.

“It looks like (…) we took the lowest bid and now we have to live with the top-ups, so I’m very concerned about that,” Coun. Ted Zurakowski said.

Mayor Greg Dionne was similarly irate.

“We really, really have to look at how we approve tenders,” Dionne said.

He told council the average bid among the seven firms that submitted proposals to complete the initial assessment was $95,000. The company hired by the city bid $32,833.

“We shouldn’t have even considered them when we look at the other credible companies that were there,” he told the meeting.

Finding funding

Dionne added he had already approached the federal and provincial governments for funding based on the previous $4.5 million estimate.

“Whatever they offer us next week I’ve got no choice but to say ‘OK, I’m going to bring it to council’, because I’m not going to say ‘it’s over double what we asked you for,’” he said, suggesting the city’s credibility regarding these sorts of applications for infrastructure dollars could be tarnished.

“They’d say ‘Well are you the city of P.A. or what are you? Jack-in-a-box? Pick a figure.’”

City administration has suggested the city fund the project with revenue from federal gas tax over the next three years, a suggestion to which the mayor balked.

“We had other plans for the gas tax,” he said.

Discussion on funding the new raw water pump house has been forwarded to Thursday night’s budget deliberations.

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Editor’s note: A previous version of this story incorrectly identified budget meetings as happening Wednesday night. The meetings will be Thursday night.

alisonsandstrom@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @alisandstrom