Cornwallis delays gravel task force

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This article was published 14/03/2023 (966 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Resolution of a contentious proposal to increase an aggregate mining and transportation licence in the Rural Municipality of Cornwallis has come to a standstill as the two sides face a delay in the setting up of a task force to study the issue.

Initially, Reeve Sam Hofer suggested it may be possible to establish the task force, or committee, by mid-March, if then-interim chief administrative officer James Montgomery could provide required data.

However, that data is still missing and Montgomery has left the employ of the RM. As a result, on Monday Hofer said the formation of a task force will likely be delayed by two to three months.

“I honestly can’t see this committee being formed till mid-May, maybe even into June,” the reeve said.

Gravel pit operators and trucking companies that haul aggregate, however, are worried that they and the RM are losing precious time.

Collet Gravel owner Denis Collet said he hasn’t heard anything since the meeting between gravel-related business owners and operators and the RM in late January where the idea of the task force was raised.

“We’ve all been wondering what’s going on there,” Collet said when reached by phone Monday. “It’s been pretty quiet since our last meeting.”

Hofer acknowledged a decision needs to be made this year, and Collet said he would like to see something done sooner than later as summer is a busy time for the gravel industry.

“Now, by the time we get a committee going, it’s going to be well into July, August, everybody’s full bore trying to run their businesses, and then it’s like, ‘Oh, my God, we’re too late, we’re behind the 8-ball,” Collet said.

Council and gravel pit owners have been at odds over a proposed change to the municipality’s mining and transportation aggregate bylaw that would have created an interim licensing fee that raised the annual cost of a licence from $10 to $6,000.

Hofer has said the money is needed to fix roads and to fund a method to determine how much aggregate is removed from pits, as some fees are based on the amount of gravel mined. The use of LiDAR was suggested by the RM, but gravel pit operators and trucking companies question its accuracy.

In delivering an update in developments to the Sun on Monday, Hofer repeated a statement he made during the last meeting in January — the RM has more pressing matters than striking a committee on the gravel issue.

Admitting it’s a record-keeping failure on the RM’s part, Hofer said they need to find missing remittance records — the amount of gravel taken and money paid — submitted by gravel pit owners and trucking companies in past years for council to make an educated decision.

“Right now, it would serve no purpose sitting down and talking about something when we actually don’t have any numbers,” Hofer said.

Adding to the difficulty, Hofer said, is that the RM’s new chief administrative officer won’t arrive until April 3, and Montgomery departed to take a run at the Progressive Conservative Party nomination for Brandon West in the upcoming provincial election.

The new CAO will need to work on the RM’s budget, which will be approved in May, Hofer said.

“We’ve got a few things to sort out before we can think about a task force, or the gravel committee,” he said, adding it will be council that makes the final decision on the issue.

Meanwhile, the $10 licence fee remains in place.

Trucking company owner Fred Gilbert agreed with Collet that the task force should be formed sooner than later. He said he and about 30 aggregate business people have already formed a Westman Aggregate Services Group in response to the RM of Cornwallis gravel issue.

“As soon as they get a CAO, we’d like to have a meeting with them and the four council members,” he said.

Gilbert wants to know how much money from the aggregate fee is going toward maintaining roads and bridges, noting aggregate businesses already pay multiple taxes, including a road tax, that should go into roads.

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