As the saying goes, ‘A million here, a million there, pretty soon you’re talking serious money.’
At the last regular Town of Cochrane council meeting before the summer break, an undercurrent of concern permeated a serious and difficult discussion of how a critical financial misstep was narrowly avoided by administration after an independent audit caught the error at the last minute.
Drew Hyndman, executive director of development and infrastructure services appeared before council to explain why a previously approved infrastructure upgrade project in Glenbow should be deferred for consideration in the 2024 budget, even though the tendering process had been completed, and community engagement had taken place.
As part of the 2023-25 budget, council had approved the Glenpatrick Drive infrastructure replacement; Glenpatrick Road and Glenhill Drive intersection upgrades; and the Glenbow Drive flood mitigation projects. These projects were intended to replace the underground water, sewer, and storm pipes, and introduce new traffic mitigation infrastructure and flood mitigation efforts in the community of Glenbow.
The community was told the construction would start in May and go to September this summer, but that timeline now is hopefully going to be pushed to next summer.
These three capital projects were approved for a total of $5.86 million and were to be funded through a combination of grants and reserves. However, a glitch was identified in the relevant federal grant process, when irregularities were identified by the auditors.
Hyndman prefaced one of his comments at the council meeting with, “Obviously, this is not the situation I wanted to be in front of you this evening.”
“We take this decision seriously and would highlight that this will give us an opportunity to address the inconsistencies raised throughout the audit,” he said.
He added an important consideration in the recommendation was that the Town would have an opportunity to work further with the impacted community, regroup, and have a comprehensive plan.
Coun. Tara McFadden supported the deferral of the works, but asked administration for a report to clarify why the strategy to pay for the project fell through.
“I’d like to get a commitment, if council could get a report on what went wrong, and what our strategy is to ensure something like this doesn’t happen again,” she said.
CAO Mike Derricott committed to providing an update to council in September.
Coun. Marni Fedeyko then asked for more information as to what the “inconsistencies” were and asked for “more accountability from the top.”
Hyndman made reference to new staff coming on board at the Town, but offered no other specifics on that particular aspect.
Coun. Morgan Nagel wanted more clarity.
“Am I to understand that an auditor has discovered there is up to a $5 million shortfall in our budget that administration was not aware of?” he asked.
Hyndman said the allocations from the federal grant funding applicable to the project were incorrect.
Nagel didn’t sound satisfied.
“Seems fairly serious,” Nagel said. “Is it not? Or is it? It seems when we approved the budget, the money wasn’t there.”
“Yes, this is very serious,” Derricott admitted, pointing to the fact that’s why administration brought it forward to council, and that until the grant funding issue was clarified, the decision to hold off on the project was only “prudent.”
“This is a difficult conversation and I appreciate that it’s happening,” said Mayor Jeff Genung. “This is exactly the type of thing we have a third-party audit for,” he said, before echoing previous comments asking for a full report identifying “the how and the why” this happened.
Barbara Bonkowsky lives on Glenpatrick Drive, has been engaged in the discussion with the Town for months, and has used up her reserves of patience.
“It's like it's like watching a football game and all the players have come from different places and nobody knows who's available to do what,” she said.
At first, Bonkowsky said she was receiving information that sounded like the shovels were going to hit the ground this summer, but communication with the Town went south, then silent in June.
“I have a huge issue with regards to how this went forward and how ignorant those at the Town of Cochrane pretend to be about this process,” she said the morning after the council meeting.
After watching council’s reaction to the administration report online, Bonkowsky said she wasn’t convinced they understood how taxpayers will view the mix-up.
“I don't think that there were indignant enough about the process,” she said. “There just seems to be apathy as opposed to empathy about this.”
Once approved, the project would need to be re-tendered, with a target date of spring 2024 for the start of construction.
