By Chris Lewis | May 27, 2021
The City of Mount Pearl is preparing to pay NL Power technicians some $100 an hour for work on city facilities, but some councillors have questions.
During council’s May 18 meeting, Deputy Mayor Jim Locke raised the subject of upgrades at Badcock Place, which involve some NL Power infrastructure underground.
While preparing to upgrade some of its own infrastructure, Locke said, the City reached out to NL Power to see if the company was interested in upgrading its own infrastructure in the area as well, rather than having to come back down the road and dig into the road once again.
In response, the City received a quote acceptance form, allowing an on-site technician from NL Power to be on standby during the work while the City comes close or adjacent to the utility’s equipment.
That form, Locke explained, allowed for a technician to be on site during trenching at a standby rate of $103.50 per hour, with the overtime standby rate reaching $139.45 per hour.
The contract schedule estimates about 40-days at 10-hours per day, coming to a lump sum estimate of $43,000, plus HST.
“This is the upper limit of what it could cost if the technician was on site for the full 40-days, but we don’t anticipate that,” Locke clarified. “It’s just, when we’re doing work in the area and we come upon their underground services, or if they’re there doing work on their own services, it’s at those times that this technician would be required to be on site. But, this is the limit of what would be expected if they were there every day.”
Locke recommended approval of the agreement, with Mayor Dave Aker stating he saw it as a good thing.
Councillor Bill Antle, however, had some concerns.
“They’re going to charge us $103 an hour just to stand by in case something goes wrong, is that how that works?” Antle asked.
It was actually Gerry Antle, the City’s Director of Infrastructure and Public Works, who came with an answer.
The director said while it was technically a standby rate, the technician would be there and expected to do inspection services for work on the infrastructure that the City does not have the expertise to do.
Director Antle added that, if during the inspections, NL Power finds more work for them to do, it will not fall back to the City to pay for it.
“The infrastructure piece that’s being done on Badcock Place is being done through our contractor,” he said, “Newfoundland Power is just providing the materials. So all the materials, the conduit, and all of the connections are being done by Newfoundland Power.”
Director Antle said when the City is doing work on its streets and need to call NL Power, it is because the work is being done on the company’s services and the City does not get charged.
Councillor Antle, meanwhile, welcomed the infrastructure work getting under way. He said he was simply skeptical about how it was being done.
Director Antle also stated that while the City will be upgrading NL Power services along the way, it is actually something that would have been done far into the future if NL Power were to simply follow their own schedule, and had the City not reached out before starting the work along Badcock Place.
“This is upgrading ahead of time,” he added. “We’ve asked for it to be done and coordinated with our work. So, it’s our cost.”
The motion to approve Locke’s motion carried unanimously.
