St. Albert will be putting “extra diligence” into drafting a business case for creating a utility corporation, by extending the business case’s deadline to before the end of November.
On Monday, city council voted to extend the deadlines on both a business case for a public utility corporation and St. Albert’s pilot waste-to-energy project, after Coun. Sheena Hughes expressed concern about the reports coming to council separately, calling them “cousins.”
“I just would like to have them both at the same time because they are related,” she said. “To me, what comes out of waste-to-energy is a key factor into the viability of the utility corporation, so approving one before the other just doesn’t make sense.”
City chief administrative officer Kevin Scoble said they are “related but separate projects,” and said waste-to-energy is being costed as one potential business line for the utility corporation.
The city has hired an outside consultant to assist in determining the viability of a public utility corporation, which contributed to the timeline’s extension. Scoble said this has increased cost implications “a bit,” but it remains within budget.
“It’s really just actually putting extra diligence into it,” he said.
The city did not respond by press time to questions regarding a budget for the utility corporation business case and outside consultant.
Originally, the city put out a bid for its waste-to-energy pilot in May, which was cancelled due to a lack of applicants who met the RFP requirements.
“We just didn’t get what we were expecting the first time in the marketplace,” Scoble said.
Since then the tender has been re-issued and its deadline extended twice, with a current closing date of Oct. 8.
According to the tender, the pilot would be for one year and the successful applicant would help St. Albert “test its technology on municipal waste, with varied feedstock compositions and moisture contents throughout all four seasons.”
Scoble said both reports may come to council in October, but the deadline extension gives some wiggle room.
