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'Worst Case Scenario For Cleanup $10 - $30 Million'
I wonder how many councillors or members of the public ever realized the Wellcox property purchase might have meant an exposure of $40,000,000.00?
I remember when this purchase was first made public the short announcement was that we had paid $3.4 million and the RDN was kicking in $2 million for a bus depot and that environmental studies had been done and there likely were no large issues. The knowledge that we were taking on a $6 - $7 million liability with the trestle, while not hidden was never a focus.
If you listen to the short clip above of Mr. Corsan bringing council up to speed with the work being done on this site you will notice how he almost casually says that due diligence before the purchase indicated a worst case scenario of up to $30 million to clean up the site.
If you combine a potential site clean up cost of $30 million, a $7 million trestle replacement cost and the purchase price of $3.4 million, potentially the Nanaimo taxpayer was in the game for over $40 million. All without any public scrutiny until after the ink was dry on the contract.
Perhaps a discussion worth having is whether or not the Community Charter really intends for our elected council and city staff to be engaged in the property speculation and developement business which could potentially put $40 million of taxpayers money on the line? We seem to have come a long way from the time our council and city staff collected taxes to provide community necessities such as water, sewer, roads, sanitation, fire and police protection.
The idea of people going into the property speculation and development business when they have nothing to lose but taxpayers dollars isn't really one that brings comfort to the soul.
The remains of a village on that site will very much limit the discretion of the city with respect to development on that site.
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