The Ministry of Highways has spent almost $225,000 since 2020 to enhance water access at its Moose Jaw depot because neither the province nor city hall wants to take responsibility for fixing a water line at Valley View Centre (VVC).
After the provincial government moved out the remaining VVC residents in September 2019, it shut off the centre’s water system, which also supplied H2O to the highway repair depot. This resulted in reduced water flow in the line, which led to the pipe bursting in January 2020 and the shop losing its city water supply.
To address this, the Ministry of SaskBuilds and Procurement installed water tanks and an automatic chlorine treatment system for $205,000 in May 2020. Since then, the ministry has spent roughly $700 per month hauling water to the depot from the City of Moose Jaw fill station that rural residents use.
By July 2022, that haulage amounted to about $19,921.18. Including the treatment system, the cost — so far — has been $224,921.18.
“Because the water line is within city limits, it is the responsibility of the City of Moose Jaw … ,” a SaskBuilds spokesperson told the Moose Jaw Express by email. “The province plans to continue with hauling water to the shop until such a time that the city provides water services.
“In the interim, this is the most cost-effective and efficient way to get water to this facility. Meetings have been held to discuss servicing properties within city limits.”
Meanwhile, city hall said by email, “While the water line serving the properties north of the river remains operational, the concerns over the line that served Valley View Centre remain unresolved. The city stands by our position taken in the letter to the Ministry of Central Services (sic) dated February 13, 2020.
“Repair of this line is an important component of any future development on that land.”
The Ministry of Central Services is now the Ministry of SaskBuilds and Procurement.
The Express became aware of this situation after it received a letter that former depot employee Bruce Rempel sent to Premier Scott Moe, former highways minister Fred Bradshaw and current Deputy Minister Blair Wagar.
This prompted the Express to submit an access to information request to city hall asking for related documents. City hall provided the information, which the Express will summarize in a separate story.
Issues with policy
Rempel, who worked for the Moose Jaw repair depot for 32 years and retired last year, wrote that he had concerns about how government policy negatively affected construction, purchasing decisions, equipment sales, environmental actions, equipment replacement and continuous improvement.
He noted that the Moose Jaw depot’s water supply issue “demonstrates there is a need for a huge shake-up.” He recalled that after the Government of Saskatchewan moved out the final VVC residents, it informed city hall that it planned to sell the 80-hectare (200-acre) property.
“The City of Moose Jaw reminded Saskatchewan property management that the Saskatchewan Government owned the water line to that property. The property management person who responded to the city said that it didn’t matter, it was being sold regardless,” Rempel wrote.
“As it turned out, they either didn’t know or didn’t care that the Moose Jaw Highway repair depot’s water supply was also on the same line as Valley View.”
After the pipe burst, the province’s property management group did not want to fix the line or run a new one to the shop, Rempel continued. So, it built an expensive high-end portable water treatment plant — he thought it cost $100,000 — inside the shop’s south bay and had a trucker haul water to the building.
To resolve this problem, Rempel contacted SaskBuilds managers in January 2021 to see if a permanent water supply could be installed to help end “the huge monthly cost of water to the shop.”
He thought the province was spending $7,500 per month hauling in water.
Furthermore, he says he spoke with Fleet Services Executive Director Theresa Finn and sent her a briefing note so she could forward it to the assistant deputy minister (ADM). She later asked Rempel if he could change the note from “action required” to information only,” otherwise, he would have to send her the Word document so she could change it before sending it to the ADM.
“I decided not to resend that way,” he added, “as I wrote it that way because I wanted action on the problem.”
This is part 1 in a series.
