To the Editor:
If there is democracy, there is accountability, transparency, and integrity within the city's administration. If this was the case, they wouldn't have cast so much doubt about the explanation of the water break bills in regards to Resolution #2018081 and Resolution #2018082 for the total payments of $57,218.74 to Water X Industrial Services Ltd. and Eric's Plumbing.
After the Thompson city council meeting on Monday, April 9, it was not surprising to me that the city councillors and mayor were totally incompetent dealing with the water break billing issues involving Water X and Eric's Plumbing. These are supposed to be public representatives elected by the taxpayers to do the right thing and they failed.
Questions that were not answered were reminiscent of the garbage dump situation in which the city ended up paying over $147,000 to contractors, resulting in a cost overrun due to underlying secrets withheld from the public.
In this case, how much were they withholding this time?
First, the city determined that it was the service line and insisted that Water X repair the leak. However, it ended up being the city's water main, which was renewed in November 2016, but the city didn't file insurance or warranty claims when the water leak was first noticed.
Who was the city representative from public works to oversee the work, and why were there no pictures to verify the location of the water leak?
The city has its own equipment and manpower to do the work. Why were they not being utilized?
Why were there no cost estimates to do the work by Water X and Eric's Plumbing?
Furthermore, hydrovac soft digging should only be considered when fibre optic lines, gas lines or power lines are in the vicinity due to its cost prohibitive nature. With that in mind, why was hydrovac used to perform the work and who determined that soft digging would be an effective method to resolve the leak?
Also, hydrovac requires working in an open hole, which is considered a
confined space. Based on their SafeProduction principles, were the contractors qualified to work in a confined space?
Since the costs from Water X and Eric's Plumbing were so high, why didn't the councillors ask questions and request an itemized breakdown of the work performed? With such a high amount, it was equivalent to the cost of fixing more than 11 water breaks.
This is just one of many other similar incidents when it comes to financial oversight by the city. Because of this, I am respectfully asking mayor and city council to step down or resign.
With regards to public works, it would be nice to see a reduction in work negligence, resulting in less repeated incidents of this nature. If city management is seeing more of this type of low-quality, low-effort work, they should be reprimanding rather than rewarding their staff.
Angus G. Campbell
Thompson
