Citizens against building the Nanaimo Operations Centre project and the alternative-approval process to borrow $48.5 million to pay for its first phase of construction voiced their objections at a public meeting last week.
At the meeting Jan. 22, Bill Sims, city general manager of engineering and public works, and city council gave an overview of the project, explained its necessity and how the project’s costs have been minimized.
Sims said part of the project planning was a value management exercise with architects.
“One of the loudest arguments that came out of this value management exercise – and it came from two architects, both independent from each other – was that there was no jewelry on this project,” Sims said.
The meeting was held in addition to tours of the public works yard this month to show deficiencies of its 1960s-era facilities. The launch of a do-over AAP started after a previous AAP in the fall would have passed, but was nixed due to an administrative error.
Of the approximately 40 people who attended last week’s special governance and priorities meeting, most of those who spoke were opposed to the AAP process. Unless 10 per cent of Nanaimo’s eligible voters, 7,889 according to city calculations, indicate their opposition on voter response forms by Feb. 20, the city can borrow up to $48.5 million to be paid back over 20 years.
Noni Bartlett, a director of the City of Nanaimo Oversight Society, which opposes the AAP, questioned the city’s math on calculating 10 per cent of the electorate, and said the error negating the previous AAP was “simply negligence to the rules of legislation.”
Coun. Tyler Brown, who chaired the meeting, said he disagreed with Bartlett’s accusation of negligence.
“The process, as set out, there’s a reason it’s open-sourced … so it can be transparent and open to challenge and that’s how these systems work to counter when mistakes are made,” Brown said.
Derek Hanna, who ran unsuccessfully for city council in 2022, was among the speakers who questioned the scale of the fleet maintenance garage. He said he agreed the facility is getting old and needs replacing, but questioned the necessity of a repair shop with 10 service bays.
“I, for one, don’t believe that we couldn’t do it in a more economical fashion,” Hanna said.
Sims said there wouldn’t be 10 garbage trucks being repaired at the same time, but the number of large service bays allow for multiple types of vehicles – the city has a 200-vehicle fleet – to be repaired simultaneously.
“It’s not infrequent that we have three or four garbage trucks in there at the same time along with one or two fire trucks, so we need to create that space,” Sims said.
Nanaimo lawyer Sandy Bartlett argued council should hold a referendum instead of an alternative-approval process.
“Just because, in city council’s view, this is a need, not a want, doesn’t justify the use of an AAP,” Bartlett said.
He said the project and AAP are controversial and will continue to be, so why not let citizens vote through a referendum.
“You can justify it any way you want, but you chose that method of having the citizens of Nanaimo deal with the inability, that they see, to vote on such a project,” Bartlett said.
READ ALSO: Nanaimo’s next public works yard AAP starts this week
Coun. Paul Manly asked to hear staff’s explanation of how an AAP can offer electors more opportunity to participate versus a referendum vote. Sheila Gurrie, the city’s director of legislative services, said the AAP is more accessible as citizens have a minimum of 30 days to submit a response.
“You can pick up copies of the forms, you can print as many copies of the forms, you can hand those copies out, you can bring in copies for other individuals. So, it’s meant to be less restrictive and give you more time. That’s what the provincial guidelines outline, anyway,” she said.
Some speakers wondered why more money hadn’t been set aside over the years to upgrade the public works yard. Brown said while the need for facilities renewal was identified 20 years ago, other infrastructure projects took priority and money couldn’t be pulled from those projects.
“This has been identified for some time and unfortunately delayed,” he said. “We can’t go back and know what was in the minds of other councils, but it is a long-overdue project.”
READ ALSO: Council vote means another AAP on the way for Nanaimo’s public works yard
