It’s a well accepted fact that everything costs more now than it did a few years back — right down to the chemicals the City of Mount Pearl uses to clean its swimming pools.
Earlier this month, council voted to switch chemical suppliers after one such price increase.
Back in July, Bilroc Industries, which supplies the City with hydrochloric acid, also know as muriatic acid, for the treatment of swimming pool water, indicated it was no longer able to continue to supply the acid for the bid price of $404 per drum, HST included, that was set in January 2022.
“The new price quoted by Bilroc is $502 per drum, plus HST,” said recreation committee member Chelsea Lane. “The committee now recommends approval to award Eastchem, the second lowest bidder, the contract to supply and deliver the muriatic acid to the City of Mount Pearl at the price of $467.13 per drum for the remainder of the 2022 fiscal year, with the option to extend based on maintaining the existing price.”
Mayor Dave Aker acknowledged that inflation has become a fact of life in the post-COVID world.
“I guess this is coming put of COVID.” Said Aker. “It’s more inflation— and people wonder why it’s going to become more and more challenging to manage the budgets here at the City.”
Councillor Mark Rice noted that rising prices due to inflation are becoming a common occurrence around the council chambers.
“Every time we put something out to tender, it always comes back that either the tender got cancelled because they couldn’t meet the requirements of the bid or we turn around and see that prices have increased ‘X’ amount of dollars,” said Rice. “And this is another indication of a price increase. We’re talking $404 for a 45-gallon drum going up to $502, so you know, it’s a true reflection of what’s happening.”
It's a problem that Rice doesn’t anticipate will go away overnight.
“I think, looking forward to the next several years, you’re going to see that prices will be really hard to maintain,” said Rice. “And right now, revenues are dropped down, so it’s very difficult to have a balanced budget.”
The motion to do business with the new supplier was approved unanimously.
