Region of Queens councillors to vote on play park write-off
Kids play this week at the splash pad at Etli Milita’mk, the universally designed play park in Liverpool. (Rick Conrad)
UPDATED JULY 20 at 10:30 a.m.
Region of Queens councillors will vote next week on whether to write off almost $51,000 in cost overruns and funding shortfalls at the universally designed play park in Liverpool.
Councillors voted last week to move the issue forward to their June 25 meeting for a final vote. Most of them appeared to support absorbing the cost.
District 2 Coun. Ralph Gidney was the only one against the motion to vote on the matter at their next meeting.
The provincial organization recently asked the municipality to cover $50,962 in unpaid bills on the $630,000 playground. Some $5,988.79 of that is interest on the overdue account.
Joanne Veinotte, director of corporate services, told councillors last week that Autism Nova Scotia told the municipality they believed that the region would cover any shortfalls.
“Fundraising was less than forecasted. The ACOA contribution was less than budgeted and there were cost overruns such as short-term security for surfacing materials, rescheduling of a rubber surface contract and extension of a rubber surface area. This all contributed to the overage.”
Beyond that, however, details about the overdue account were sparse. It was unclear what the outstanding bill is for or to whom, or when Autism Nova Scotia realized that there wasn’t enough money on hand to cover all the expenses of the project.
The playground is named Etli Milita’mk (pronounced ed-a-lee milly-dumk), which is Mi’kmaw for “we are playing here”. It opened last October, after years of community fundraising led by Queens County resident Debbie Wamboldt and others. It’s designed to be inclusive and accessible for everybody, regardless of ability or age.
The community group raised about $100,000 on their own, with the region donating the land near Queens Place Emera Centre and committing $111,773 from its community investment fund. ACOA and the provincial government also contributed to the project.
Autism Nova Scotia issued charitable tax receipts and held the money in trust to pay the region for construction as invoices were submitted. The region also agreed to own, operate and maintain the playground.
QCCR tried numerous times for an interview with officials from Autism Nova Scotia. Last week, a spokeswoman said in an email that they were “unable to provide an interview at this time”.
QCCR asked the municipality this week for clarification on the account. In an email, Heather Cook, the region’s communications and engagement co-ordinator, explained that the municipality has paid all bills related to the park and no suppliers are owed money.
Because of cost overruns and funding shortfalls, she said, Autism Nova Scotia contacted the region in April to say that it would not be paying the full amount of the final invoice, which the municipality issued in January. The group did not pay any interest on overdue invoices during the term of the project, resulting in interest charges which contributed to the shortfall.
Councillors will vote on June 25 “to fund the outstanding interest charges and project overrun that (are) owed to the municipality due to the funding shortfall.”
The money would come from the municipality’s accumulated budget surplus.
District 1 Coun. Kevin Muise said last week that councillors had voted to donate the land and approve funding from the community investment fund. But he said they didn’t vote to cover any overruns.
District 3 Coun. Maddie Charlton asked if there was any additional information that staff could share with councillors before their next meeting.
CAO Cody Joudry, who took over in November, said there wasn’t.
“I don’t believe there is any other documentation to provide council. … From Autism Nova Scotia’s perspective, they’re like, ‘Well, it’s not really fair to make us cover the difference because we were just the pass-through and really the region was the one who was managing the project.’
“I think if we were doing this over again, we would have brought this to council a lot sooner, like in the construction phase and talked about these issues. But I can’t do anything about that now. So, unfortunately, Coun. Charlton, I do not believe there is any more information I can bring you.”
Councillors did not want to ask Autism Nova Scotia or the local fundraising group to cover the extra costs.
Mayor Darlene Norman said that it was nobody’s fault. Construction delays and weather last summer contributed to the extra expenses.
She said in an interview Monday that it didn’t help that the region was without a full-time CAO for much of last year. Former CAO Chris McNeill left the job in May.
“Remember, this was a time when we had no CAO last year, directors were shifting and taking those roles. And then we had the boil water situation happening, we had no permanent CAO. I’m not saying that’s any reason why this may have occurred, but obviously there was lack of communication between Autism Nova Scotia and Region of Queens staff.”
Norman said that in future, the region would likely approach projects like this differently.
“It was a lesson that if a project like this should ever be undertaken again there needs to be very firm rules respecting who manages what and conversations and communication between the two partners.”
The June 25 council meeting will be held at the Westfield Community Hall in North Queens.
Email: rickconradqccr@gmail.com
