Trinela Cane, Commissioner, Corporate Services addressed the Committee and provided a brief introduction to the presentation. She indicated the East Markham Works Yard is a priority of Council to ensure effective winter maintenance service delivery. She provided a recap of the capital approval process to date for the project and indicated to the Committee that in the past several months, additional funding requirements had been identified which required Council approval. She also highlighted that there have been related project delays which will impact on the project completion date. She introduced Graham Seaman, Director, Sustainability and Asset Management who delivered the East Markham Works Yard presentation outlining the additional budget requirements, the budget increase request for $1.5M, an updated project timeline and the authority request to grant an easement to Alectra for electrical services to the site.
There was discussion on the following relative to the presentation:
- Consideration to provide a more definitive opening date;
- Whether the site is still the most appropriate given the information available;
- The issues surrounding soil conditions and the number of necessary bore holes to conduct analysis;
- Accountability of the consultant vs staff in relation to due diligence;
- Consideration to request funding to undertake due diligence investigations in the future;
- Inquiry into the project funding source and whether there is enough to cover the costs;
- Where the responsibility to determine the project scope and cost assessment lies and whether there is an established process to determine it;
- The process to select consultants; and,
- Inquiry into entering closed session to discuss aspects of project responsibility.
Staff provided information in reference to the discussion. Commissioner Cane indicated that Staff rely on the advice provided by the expert contracted consultants and noted that Staff have tools such as the vendor evaluation process to evaluate vendor performance. Staff will look at due diligence requirements for future projects will be established for subsequent projects. Andy Taylor, Chief Administrative Officer, indicated that an independent third party review of this project will be undertaken.