Governments at the local level, and to a lesser extent at the provincial level, often try to be careful with the spending of taxpayers dollars. Thus, with political bodies like Weyburn city council, they will often go for the lowest bid on a tender in an effort to the get the best value for the dollars, on behalf of the taxpayers.
When Weyburn council asked for a Request for Proposal (RPF) regarding the future of the city’s landfill, the opposite tack was used, and the proposal with the highest price tag was chosen, to the tune of $160,000, as opposed to the lowest price of $29,000. The average price from seven consultants was around $77,000.
So, did council do the prudent thing in choosing the proposal with the highest price tag?
The first thing to realize, as city engineer Sean Abram pointed out, an RFP is not the same as a tender. In a tender, the municipality asks for the supply of a product or service at the lowest price, but ensuring the product meets the requirements and standards that the municipality has set.
With an RFP, the municipality has a certain task they need done, and they were asking consultants to submit their best proposal for what they would do for the city, in this case, to do a thorough study of the short and long-term plans for the city’s landfill.
This will include the operations of the landfill with ways to improve how things are done, ensuring that all environmental standards are met and that the citizens of Weyburn and area are getting the best value for the cost of operating the landfill, and the future cost of replacing the landfill.
Among the requirements is to have an eye to meeting future stringent regulations that the federal and provincial governments will be bringing down. Some councillors balked at the price tag, and pointed to the unknown factor of “regulations to come” as something that the city shouldn’t have to be paying for ahead of time.
Mayor Debra Button injected a sober observation in this regard, as in her position as president of SUMA, and serving on the national FCM board, she pointed out that tougher rules on landfills are coming, and it’s a question of when, not if, those regulations come, so Weyburn is smart to “get ahead of the curve” on this.
The environment is one area that governments (and companies, for that matter) can no longer cut corners on, as regulations get stricter with the view to making a real difference, environmentally speaking. — Greg Nikkel
