Under the current policy, property owners are provided with the choice to pay their share of the cost in full. Those property owners who require financial assistance with the full payment can choose to access alternative financing through various lending institutions which would likely have provisions for longer-term repayment periods and attractive interest rates.

Financial Matters:

Local Improvement Policy Consolidation Change

It is proposed that all local improvements approved in a given year continue to be funded through the appropriate local improvement project based on funding availability. The proposed policy changes being recommended will result in an increased proportion of costs being borne by the City as compared to the 2019 Policy while providing a more accurate and fair assessment of local costs to abutting property owners. Projects will be prioritized to maximize environmental benefits and will proceed based on approvals and available budget.

Municipal Sanitary Local Improvement on Baseline Road

EnWin – Water has plans to replace the existing watermain and service connections on Baseline Road. Combining this work with the local improvement project will create efficiencies in both projects. EnWin –Water will reimburse the City the full cost of the watermain portion of the work plus an administration fee for engineering and contract administration related to the watermain. This will partially offset the net cost to the City for the overall works.

The estimated costs to the City and abutting lots for the municipal local improvement portion of the work on public right-of-way only (watermain work excluded) are outlined in the attached Schedule ‘C’. The abutting lots will be assessed the costs of the construction based on a rate per meter of frontage and a fixed rate per private drain connection.

The total estimated cost of this project including watermain reconstruction, design and contract administration is $2,722,368 of which $779,360 is estimated to be fully recovered from the benefitting property owners and $1,337,500 will be recovered from EnWin – Water. Recoveries from EnWin - Water include a 7% administration fee. The remaining net cost to the City is $605,508 as is detailed in the table below.