Enquiry Into Land Deal Costs Draws Calls Discussion Is Out Of Order
An enquiry into how much the City has spent towards Canadian Tire's proposed new retail development on Thatcher Drive drew some fireworks just as Monday evening's regular Council meeting was drawing to a close.
The enquiry from Councillor Brian Swanson provided the answer the City had so far spent $111,267.17 on the proposed retail development without seeing any money from the retail giant.
But the additional response from city manager Jim Puffalt drew heavy criticism from Councillor Swanson and two calls from Councillor Chris Warren the discussion was out of order.
Speaking about the monies so far spent Councillor Swanson said “it does not include the hundreds of hours in administrative time.”
He further criticized comments added by Puffalt as being out of order and incorrect. In his added response Puffalt was critical of the City for not being ready for commercial development by not being ready with infrastructure or knowing how much the infrastructure would cost to service any proposed commercial development.
“I disagree with the statement. The Exhibition Company lands were not for sale they were onong term lease. The purchaser made an unsolicited bid. To have been able to service that land in advance would have been impossible,” Councillor Swanson said.
In the answer Puffalt had the added note which read in part “Lessons that the City has learned in recent land developments is that the City needs to have fully serviced Commercial /Industrial land for sale. That requires an advance of funds from the Land Development Fund to ensure that the lands are fully serviced, or servicing costs are known. That advance is recouped when the property sells as will be done in this circumstance.”
Councillor Swanson felt the lesson learnt by the City was having commercial and industrial land prior to a developer seeking lands like Canadian Tire was impossible. He stressed the City had fully serviced properties for sale in the William Grayson Industrial Park for 40 years with no takers to oppose Puffalt's opinion.
“I would hope the one lesson we learnt by the time of contract acceptance by both parties there should be a component of a non-refundable deposit.”
At this point an agitated Councillor Chris Warren in a raised voice tried twice to have Councillor called out of order.
“Point of order we are just re-hashing old news,” Councillor Warren said.
At this point Councillor Swanson said his points were valid as they were not a response ti the enquiry but rather the added response from city manager Puffalt.
“I can appreciate the lack of desire to hear this but the two most recent land deals we are out over $170,000 in costs which would have e been part ofc non-refundable deposit,” Councillor Swanson said.
“So if there are any lessons to be learned which I think should be added here is that we should not be going out and servicing a whole bunch of land when we do these negotiations we should have non-refundable deposits.”
Puffalt felt his comments were being misrepresented and taken out of context.
“I did not say fully serviced land I say service the land or know the cost of servicing the land,” Puffalt said. “The point I am trying to make here is that when there is an opportunity sometimes you have to make it work.”
Delays could be costly up to the point of losing development projects, he said.
Canadian Tire in October 2016 announced plans to build a major retail development on Thatcher Drive East on land occupied by the Moose Jaw Exhibition Company.
After renegotiating the original deal Canadian Tire made a deal to buy 11.95 acres of land for $3,172,725 including off-site levies.
Changes to the deal, which will see the City net approximately $1 million less than the original 2016 deal, drew criticism from Councillor Swanson.
It was a deal Canadian Tire declined to take the City up on.
At a subsequent Council meeting the decision was made to allow Canadian Tire to defer the deal for a year with no transfer of funds required.