A week or two ago I watched our elected officials in ‘action’ at a recent city council meeting on TV. It left me concerned about how our city is being run.
A question was brought forward as to why the price of the old landfill site remediation went from $8 million to $32 million. The person was abruptly cut off when her allotted time was up, maybe due to the tone of her question and no doubt some history between the parties. Her question was followed by a report from city staffers who stated in their opening that they would take longer than their allocated time. Nothing was said of this which I thought was unfair as the previous lady had just been abruptly cut off.
The staffer went on to explain the history of the project. The presentation lacked any accountability and was nothing more than a recap of what was done. A staff member made a statement that they could never have known or imagined that there would be methane gas coming off a landfill site. I find this very concerning especially as these people were charged with overseeing this project. How could they not know?
It is widely known that landfill sites provide opportunities for recovering and marketing methane gases. Perhaps we should have had the City of Edmonton running the project. There seemed to be more uncertainties with the project. They moved something over here and that over there because it would be less expensive only to later state that it was more than anticipated due to additional work required to meet standards. They seemed pleased that they were only over budget by one per cent as they near completion. I am not sure if that was on the whole project or just the final stage.
Mayor Crouse clarified that the one per cent was above the additional overrun of the 10 per cent contingency. In other words, everything that they thought could go wrong went wrong. One per cent. One phase or five. $8 million to $32 million. Hardly worthy of praise. Any way you look at it, it is a reflection of the workings of our current mayor and council. I am looking forward to Oct 18.
Vern Mudryk, St. Albert
