To update the assessment schedules associated with the Caledonia Creek Drain, The Nation Council provisionally accepted Shade Group Inc.’s (SGI) engineer’s report on September 30. The costs have not yet been confirmed, but SGI’s report outlined an arbitrary valuation with input from The Nation Township’s Drainage Superintendent Éric Leroux.
The SGI report to council cost $21,090 pre-taxes and did not include a soil composition or topography review. The fees also do not account for any appeals, tribunals, or mandated sitting in the Court of Revision.
The Caledonia Creek Drain watershed is comprised predominantly of active agricultural lands but also includes rural residential development. Its boundaries encompass approximately 6,135 hectares.
The Caledonia Creek Drain has experienced changes within the watershed since the last report was conducted in 1957 by H. R. Farley. The reassessment schedule was, therefore, necessary to allow for updated and correct billings of future maintenance and work. As drainage ditches take water away from tile drains underneath farm fields, a modern re-evaluation considered the changes during the past 60 years.
“Overall, the meeting went quite well. Whenever it was properly explained and what the report was about, I think it put people at ease,” Mayor of The Nation Francis Brière told The Review.
Land divisions, additional tributaries, changes in housing density, and inaccuracies with overlapping watersheds required The Nation to seek an updated assessment to ensure fair costs for current and future maintenance to the municipality and property owners. SGI estimated that spot repair and other maintenance would cost approximately $50,000. There are no plans to conduct complete top-to-bottom maintenance of the Caledonia Creek Drain at this time.
“If there are repairs here, then people upstream would pay a percentage on that. By adopting the report, we’re basically saying that this is how the costs are going to be spread out if something needs to be repaired,” Brière said.
“What the report does, is it essentially sets a schedule on who pays what and the percentages. We don’t have anything scheduled right now that we would be spending hundreds of thousands of dollars; nothing like that,” he continued.
Under the Drainage Act, the municipality and property owners whose land fronts the drain, share the repair and maintenance costs. The report to the council stated that under the Drainage Act, work associated with maintenance is expected to be eligible for government grants to alleviate costs to the municipality and its residents. Registered properties with the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Agribusiness under the Farm Property Class Tax Rate Program could be eligible for grants totalling one-third of the costs incurred.
Consultations were held with numerous landowners within the watershed to discuss any concerns with the assessment schedule and options for maintenance.
Brière encouraged anyone who has questions or concerns regarding the Caledonia Creek Drain to visit The Nation’s website and view the report at https://nationmun.ca/en/caledoniacreek-municipal-drain. Individuals are also welcome to contact the Clerk’s Office through emailing [email protected] or by phone at 613-764-5444 extension 228.
