South Frontenac Council - Feb 14/20

Jeff Green | Feb 16, 2012

South Frontenac backs off Caterpillar protest

South Frontenac Township's solicitor has poured cold water on Councilor Bill Robinson's proposal that the township refuse to buy a piece of road equipment, a vibratory roller, from Caterpillar, even though the price of the Caterpillar roller was marginally lower than the next lowest priced machine.

While the township is not obligated to choose the lowest priced bid, the reasons why the lowest bid may be refused that were listed in the standard tender document that was issued for the roller only deal with “value and advantage based upon price, ability, quality of work, proposed schedule, past experience, past performance and qualification.”

In this case the explicit reason for the proposal to choose the higher priced machine is the labour practices of Caterpillar, which demanded that employees at their London, Ontario plant take a 50% pay cut and then pulled out of Canada entirely when the workers refused to take the cut.

According to a written report by township CAO Wayne Orr, “Legal counsel advises that council should be cautious in changing the criteria for evaluating tenders mid-way through the process. In similar situations the courts have not looked favourably on such actions. Any decision to proceed with a tender that is not the lowest price when all the specifications have been met places the township at risk."

“It says that it is council's decision. What Caterpillar has done sets a whole new precedent for working families in Canada, a dangerous precedent, and all our tenders say we don't need to choose the lowest bid. We can do this and stand up to Caterpillar,” said Bill Robinson.

“I don't think that we are in a position to challenge the advice from our lawyers,” said Mayor Davison, “even though I have sympathy with your point of view, Councilor Robinson.”

In straw vote, 5 of the 6 councilors at the meeting supported buying from Caterpillar. The matter will come to a final vote at next week's Council meeting.

Vacant land condominium road standards – Township Planner Lindsay Mills addressed Council about a planning tool that South Frontenac is adding to their Official Plan.

In addition to Plans of Subdivision, which the township uses for most developments that involve multiple undersized building lots, the township is going to permit vacant land condominium developments. Vacant land condominiums are less onerous on developers, and the main difference between them and Plans of Subdivision is in the legal status of the common road that all residents in the development use to get to their own property. In Plans of Subdivision, the developer must build a road to the township's public road standard, and the road is then taken over and maintained by the township. Under a condominium agreement, the common road remains with the property owners, who share in the cost of maintaining it.

Lindsay Mills recommended that the standard for condominium roads should be lower than the public road standard.

Councilor Allan McPhail disagreed.

“We need to set a high standard at the start,” he said.

Councilor Cam Naish said, “Condominium roads are and will remain private. They do not belong to us, so why should we impose our high standards?”

Again a straw vote was taken, which indicated that the lower standard will likely prevail when the matter comes before Council next week.