Town of Sackville had other options, says CUPE

2006-05-09

FREDERICTON – The Town of Sackville had more than one option to deal with the operation of the water treatment plant, but chose to go with a private company.

“During the meeting, when the Town decided to award a $1.25 million seven-year contract to an outside firm for the operation of the Water Treatment Plant, the Mayor led us to believe that they were pressured by the Department of Environment to go that way”, said Daniel Légère, President of CUPE NB.

“The Mayor explained that the Department of Environment had told them they had no chance to implement the Water Certification Program because they didn ’t have the trained staff.

"I wrote to the Minister of Environment, Roland Haché, about this issue. In his response, the Minister assured me that the Department was seeking ‘a Plan’ from Sackville on how they intended to deal with their deficiencies and meet their provincial water certification levels".

"The Minister also stated that the Town had many options such as partnering with other communities, provide additional training for current staff or hire new qualified personnel”, explained Légère.

“The Town deliberately chose to ignore all the options instead of training its own employees, and decided to contract this service to the private sector. Other towns in the province have to comply with the same regulations concerning the Water Treatment Plant, and they have chosen to keep this service public. We strongly believe the Town of Sackville should reconsider its decision”, concluded Daniel Légère.