A proposed labour camp development just outside the western borders of the city, resting in the RM of Estevan, has received resistance from the RM council.
Richard Skinner, promoter of the labour camp concept on behalf of developer George Ross Caterers of Calgary, said it appears as if he might be "in a little bit of a fight with the RM council," but hoped the two parties would be able to resolve differences since "there are going to be 400 or 500 more people coming into the area anyway, so the RM and City of Estevan are going to have to make some moves one way or another pretty soon."
Skinner was referring to the fact that a major $1.24 billion clean coal power production project at nearby Boundary Dam Power Station is rapidly moving forward with the expectation of having an additional 150 to 200 construction workers on the site within the next few months and up to 600 workers during the peak periods of the project.
Skinner said GRC Caterers had acquired (through lease arrangements) access to about 26 acres of land from Calvin Johnson located along Breeze Street in the RM's industrial subdivision just across the road from Kelly Lafrentz Trucking. Skinner contends that "perhaps the reeve just doesn't want the camp as his business neighbour," and added that he expected that Lafrentz, who is the Reeve of the RM of Estevan, would excuse himself from any discussions or votes made with regards to the camp proposal since it might affect his business directly. Skinner added that if he hadn't, he might be found to be in a conflict-of-interest situation that might have legal implications.
But Lafrentz scoffed at the idea that he would have had to recuse himself from the discussion and vote, noting he had no vested interest in the property in question and therefore would have no personal opinion on what type of business might be located across the road from his holdings.
"I had nothing to gain or lose one way or another, no invested interest in the property in question at all."
The reeve stated the council rejected the plan from GRS Caterers for a number of reasons, and none of them ws personal or bore any relations to his business interests but rather focused on the RM's development and business requirements.
Skinner said the labour camp proposal called for an original modular housing component for 180 people with security, food and amenities provided.
The RM rejected the original proposal since it would place a residential population in the middle of a large commercial/industrial district and they would not be set up to deal with the typical issues that would surface such as the need for increased policing protection plus increased road damage due to stepped up traffic volumes. Lafrentz also pointed out the sewer system in the subdivision is already working at maximum and could not accommodate additional services being hooked up.
In a note to Skinner, the councillors also pointed out they had agreed to one labour camp project on the other side of the city as a pilot project and were still dealing with the challenges that this camp has created.
"I have spoken with SNC Lavalin and SaskPower officials and neither of them have expressed any interest in establishing a labour camp near Boundary Dam to accommodate workers," said Skinner, referring to the lead companies involved in the clean-coal project.
But Lafrentz noted that he and his council felt that the Boundary Dam site would be the best option for the project in terms of housing the labourers on a temporary basis, whether they provided it themselves or contracted another company to do it.
Skinner said he felt he had a personal deadline of until the end of August to get his proposal approved by the RM before his company would run out of time to provide the service. He said there "is a Plan B, but I don't want to get into that now because this proposal is the best one."
Lafrentz said he found it a little odd that Skinner had not yet actually appeared before the RM council to sell them on the proposal.
"I know the first time I heard about this plan was when I read about it in The Mercury a few weeks ago (June 15). Mr. Skinner came to visit you guys before he came to us. That's a bit strange. I guess he likes to do his negotiating in the media. We haven't seen him yet," Lafrentz said.
But they have been exchanging e-mails because Skinner had been seeking the RM's approval since their July 21 council meeting when they dealt with the request.
Skinner said the new labour camp would be of a very good quality, offering on-site food service as well as top accommodations and activity centres, employing a staff of 15 that would be hired locally or "brought in if necessary" in the event the local labour pool was unable to meet the demand.
The GRS representative said the sewer problem would be met by contracting the services of a vacuum truck on a regular basis if the RM could not accommodate regular sewer hookup.
"I just want to see if we can make this work with the RM, because there is definitely a need now and the need will be even greater later on."
Lafrentz said the RM is in negotiations with the City of Estevan right now to increase sewer services in the region in question. He added that potable water is not a problem.
"But we know that work camp traffic requires heavy road maintenance. The one leading in and out of the current camp we have in the RM has added to that problem to a tune of about $25,000 in additional road maintenance," said Lafrentz. "Of course not all extra traffic is attributable to the camp, but they certainly contribute."
"There is additional dust, additional traffic and safety concerns. There are quite a few things that would have to be considered first and that's why we'd like to see the camp on the SaskPower land so that they can deal with the traffic and infrastructure concerns. These work camps are temporary things. They contribute to the tax base for a couple of years and then they're done and in the meantime we've tied up our services and prime commercial property for a temporary service," said Lafrentz.
Policing and security are other issues, the reeve added. The RCMP, who would be responsible for that end of it are already severely understaffed, said Lafrentz.
"Whether it's the City of Estevan or ourselves, we'll accept the pressure as it comes. We'd love to have a big hotel in the RM too. We lost one proposal for a 50 room hotel ... had to refuse it because of sewer and policing questions. So we must be clear here, our record in the RM shows we don't turn down development. This proposal is for a temporary housing project. We deal with SaskPower on a number of things and sometimes there is a fallout because of their presence but usually it works great. We benefit from them being here, so it's not a battle with SaskPower or the clean-coal project, it's just that this work-camp project is something that requires more," Lafrentz said in conclusion.
