NORTH BATTLEFORD - The City of North Battleford will turn down a provincial airport grant after deciding to cancel a proposed backup generator project for the Cameron McIntosh Airport.
The backup generator would have backed up power for the airport taxiway and runway lights. The decision was made at Monday’s council meeting to cancel the project for 2023-24 and to bring the project back to council in future years. In the process, the city forfeits a $75,000 grant from the province’s Community Airport Partnership program.
“We can’t afford it, let’s back off, wait until we budget properly for the funds for the backup generator,” said Director of Operations Stewart Schafer.
It's rare for the City to ever say no to money from the province. But the tenders for the project came in at a minimum of $94,621.90 more than what was originally estimated, and that had pushed the city's share of costs through the roof -- to the point where council decided ultimately to walk away.
Schafer explained what happened to council. Initially, the firm Wilms Engineering had estimated the project as costing $150,000, and a submission was made to the CAP program on that basis.
On May 23, North Battleford received word from the province they were awarded the CAP grant for the backup generator. That grant was structured according to the usual 50-50 share with the CAP fund contributing $75,000 and the City responsible for the remaining amount.
After that announcement, the City engaged Wilms Engineering again to develop a tender. The firm contacted four electrical contractors for quotes, and invited them to bid. Only two bids came in, from L7 Electric and River City Plumbing and Heating.
But the lowest bid, from L7 Electric, came in at $216,479.56 when PST is included. Factoring in the project management, engineering and redesign costs and the total would be $244,621.90 including PST.
That meant the City’s share would be $169,621.90 including the taxes, over budget by $94,621.90. After looking at various ways to reduce the construction costs, and after consulting city administration, it was finally concluded cutbacks to the project would have been too severe to the future operations of the airport.
Administration recommended postponing completely until such time they could budget further funding to construct the entire project.
“This will mean we will be informing the province that we aren’t going to join the CAP fund (and) give them back their share of monies of $75,000,” said Schafer. They will pay Wilms Engineering for their portion.
While the City gives up its $75,000 from the province, they can still apply in future years if they wish to try again. But there’s also no guarantee they will get the grant again.
As well, a council decision from May 8 to set aside $25,000 from the revenue sharing grant increase towards the project will instead be used to reduce the 2024 tax impact from the city’s budget.
Council members were disappointed, and expressed their frustration that the initial estimate from Wilms Engineering ended up so far off. But Schafer pointed to the inflation pressures that have wreaked havoc on numerous city projects over the last couple of years.
“Like every other project we’ve had here, the prices are just going nuts. We don’t know why,” said Schafer. “They seem to be going up and the suppliers are having trouble trying to get the material. Yeah, we’re having some problems.”
Schafer also noted the importance of the project was still there. If the airport were to lose power with no backup generator, it would mean diverting emergency aircraft away from North Battleford.
“It’s still of high importance, but we don’t have the budget this year,” said Schafer.
