After two years of negotiations, a water deal between Collingwood and New Tecumseth appears to be on tap.
During Monday morning’s special strategic initiatives standing committee meeting, Collingwood council voted unanimously in favour of receiving the new draft Collingwood-New Tecumseth water agreement, which would be in effect for 10 years with an option to extend every 10 years once signed.
As part of the deal, Collingwood would receive a $6.5-million payment from New Tecumseth to buy back their interest in the pipeline outside of Collingwood town limits.
The town will now be accepting public feedback on the draft agreement while they have the town’s legal counsel review it before council officially signs on the dotted line.
“It appears to me to be the best deal we could possibly have got,” said Acting Deputy Mayor Mariane McLeod. “We’re getting the money we never were paid from the previous deal, and we’re getting yearly payments to the community up to a possible $400,000 a year, and we’re getting significant assistance for the enormous costs of building the new plant.
“Everybody is pretty happy and only some are a little unhappy, (so) I think we’ve found that sweet spot,” she said.
During Monday’s meeting, Collingwood CAO Sonya Skinner emphasized that Collingwood has been providing 9,500 cubic metres of water per day to New Tecumseth since 2008, and that wouldn’t change under the agreement until the new water treatment plant comes online and capacity is expanded.
In response to questions from CollingwoodToday.ca about whether the new agreement will impact water rates in Collingwood, town treasurer Monica Quinlan said residents will not see any changes on their water bills in relation to the agreement.
“The agreement has an updated water supply rate (for New Tecumseth), which does mean that we will have a more constant amount added to (Collingwood’s) asset management reserve, but it will not change anything for our users,” said Quinlan.
Key highlights from the new agreement include that Collingwood will own 18.5 per cent interest in the pipeline outside town limits, which New Tecumseth will purchase for $6.5 million once the agreement is signed.
Collingwood would keep ownership of the pipeline from the water treatment plant to the town boundary.
New Tecumseth will pay a share of the costs for the expansion of the water treatment plant based on the proportion of Collingwood’s water capacity that gets sent to Alliston.
An administration fee of $0.04 per cubic metre will be charged to New Tecumseth based on flow. The maximum annual administration fee collected by Collingwood will be set at a rate of up to $400,000 per year for the first 10 years of the agreement.
The two municipalities will also form a joint water committee to review planning for future expansions, discuss maintenance and capital budgets, supply rates, resolve disputes, develop communications between municipalities, and address any other water distribution matters.
During Monday’s meeting, Coun. Yvonne Hamlin asked where the $6.5 million would go.
“We have not consulted with members of council yet on how they would like to approach that,” said Quinlan. “Of course, the funds would go into our water reserve for future discussion among members of council.”
Collingwood has been sending water to New Tecumseth for 22 years.
In the late 1990s, the Town of New Tecumseth approached Collingwood to ask for help with water supply to support a Honda production plant in Alliston. A pipeline from Collingwood to Alliston was required and was built along the rail line that ran between the two municipalities.
An agreement was reached in June 1999 that saw Collingwood sending treated drinking water to New Tecumseth. The water was to be purchased at minimum quantities. At the time, Collingwood had just built a new water treatment plant and had excess capacity.
The agreement between Collingwood and New Tecumseth expired in 2020, and the following year both municipalities paid for Hemson Consulting to update the supply rate model.
The agreed-upon model will be in place once the new agreement is signed. Both Collingwood and New Tecumseth councils considered the draft agreement at their meetings on July 25.
You can read the staff report and draft agreement online here.
Collingwood council will next discuss the agreement at a meeting on Aug. 8, before a final vote at a special meeting on Aug. 18. New Tecumseth council will also have to vote in favour of the deal before it could be signed.
— With files from Erika Engel
