CollingwoodToday welcomes letters to the editor at [email protected] or via our website. Please include your daytime phone number and address (for verification of authorship, not publication). The following letter was submitted in response to the town's water treatment plant expansion and the costs escalating to $270 million.
The proposed water treatment plant expansion is vital for at least two of the three communities involved. New Tecumseth takes about two-thirds of the water plant capacity and would pay about two-thirds of the $270 million cost.
Collingwood is on the hook for most of the balance, since TBM takes only a small amount of the water capacity and therefore would pay proportionally less. Both Collingwood and New Tecumseth have said they can’t afford this level of cost, and are asking higher-level governments, primarily the province, to step up. So far ... crickets.
There were recent news reports that Honda is contemplating a massive $18 billion ... that’s with a B ... investment in either Canada or the USA for battery and EV auto manufacturing.
One would guess that if Canada is successful that a significant proportion of that investment would go to Alliston, where Honda already has a major manufacturing facility with a highly qualified and experienced workforce. That in turn would generate additional growth, both residential and industrial, in the surrounding community, with concomitant increased demand for additional high-quality Collingwood treated water.
The federal and provincial governments would typically contribute massively to any Honda investment, as has been the case with recent EV and battery plant announcements.
Meanwhile, time is of the essence. The low bidder on the water plant expansion has thrice extended their bid expiry timeline.
So where is the province in all of this? More to the point where is our MPP, Brian Saunderson, the former mayor of Collingwood? His riding encompasses both Collingwood and New Tecumseth. His only comment so far has been a word salad about the rising costs of infrastructure projects.
“We’re seeing a trend in the post-pandemic world with labour shortages and supply-chain issues with costs exceeding previous estimates,” he said in a Simcoe.com article. “We are working with both municipalities to see what we can do, but certainly, this number, in many respects, was the really high end of what we thought the range might be. We know infrastructure is essential for our communities to meet the housing targets, so there’s work to be done.”
Saunderson said with the rising cost of infrastructure, the funding of large projects may have to change.
None of that is in the least helpful – everybody already knows it. But isn’t it high time for him to urgently and publicly demand that Premier Doug Ford step up?
John Megarry
Collingwood, Ont.
.png;w=120;h=80;mode=crop)
