Last year, Council approved revitalization to sidewalk repairs, which were scheduled to happen this summer.
The job was expected to cost $1,116,000, $750,000 of which would be covered by a grant from the Canada Community Revitalization Fund.
However, when the job went out for tender, it came in at $268,000 over budget.
This meant that the project had to go back before council to approve the extra amount.
And, while the District has more than enough in gas tax funds to cover the excess, the project has been put on hold as it turns out that nobody is quite sure what portion of the sidewalks are owned by the District.
The trouble, says Mayor Krakowka, is it was assumed this issue was previously handled, but there is no record of that happening.
Which means if the District were to replace the sidewalks and it turns out the sidewalks are owned by private businesses, it could run afoul of the BC Community Charter, which has restrictions on providing assistance to businesses.
Krakowka says Council hasn’t had a good discussion on what sidewalks are being replaced and—more importantly—who owns them.
“In 2022, there was no discussion as to where the cement work would be done,” says Mayor Krakowka. “There was no discussion regarding it would against business’ building that were business owned. There was no discussion as to what sidewalks and where and how close to the buildings it would get. That could be why we didn’t look at it. And I have a concern. I know there’s a business in town that’s looking at taking out some gravel and adding cement closer to that business. Should we be paying for that now, too? I’m glad the business I own is not part of this, because I would not participate in this, as it is a private business.”
Councillor Norbury says he wants to see all the sidewalks get replaced. “I’m happy doing the sidewalks right up to the businesses. They pay taxes in our community. Even though they are businesses they still should receive some sort of benefit of being part of our municipality. If we’re going to do this for the entirety of our downtown I say we do it. We are not using taxation for this so I would support it all the way up to the doorstep.”
New CFO Natalie Wehner says that if the property is business owned, the District is not allowed to replace it. “I just want to make it very clear that if these sidewalks are on business property, it’s illegal for us to assist business. We cannot use gas tax money, we cannot use PRA money because that is taxation money. So it is illegal for us to do that. So we have to be very careful on this if it’s business property, not public property.”
Mayor Krakowka says that this is why he raised the issue. “It’s very concerning to me. When this came before the previous council there was no map showing where we were doing. There was talk of doing the majority of the project in-house and I understand that has changed. I get it. We had a different Director of Operations and Infrastructure that figured that he could do it all in-house. But we’re in a different realm now. We have a we have different staff and I haven’t seen a map yet.”
Councillor Hofman says Council needs to figure out how to do all the sidewalks. “We need to figure out a way around that—maybe we partially fund it in a different way—because in the end you’re talking about cutting a foot or two feet of concrete out and then doing all the sidewalks and leaving a chunk of 40 year old concrete next to the building because we didn’t take enough time to figure it out.”
He says breaking the job into two parts doesn’t sound like the most cost effective way of replacing the sidewalk. “I guess what we really need is a percentage of the total 1,820 square metres that we’re actually talking about here. If it’s 20 metres then I would just say fund it in a way that is legal and if we’re talking 200 square metres and it’s a very different conversation to be had. I don’t want to delay it and I’m wondering if there’s any consequences if we do delay it. Do we lose this grant funding if we’re not doing it in time this year?”
Woodward says there was nothing in the original information that this work would be on private property. “I would certainly not be proposing that we do work on a business area so that we were given a benefit to a business. I guess I assumed wrong that we were replacing a sidewalk that … was on business property.”
However, says Woodward, the project has already been approved and it’s going ahead. “If we prevent the contractor from proceeding at this point in time, then we’ll suffer the consequences or maybe even something like a breach of contract. So I can’t stop the project from going ahead at this point. We’re in a bit of a dilemma on that.”
Council moved to closed to discuss the process and when they came out of closed, they reported that the plan was to defer approving the motion until staff was able to provide clarity on the issue of what—if any—of the sidewalks are owned by the businesses.
Trent is the publisher of Tumbler RidgeLines.
