The price for Bradford to order three new snow plows has jumped by more than $100,000.
Based on a report from senior engineering technologist Joe Costanza, committee of the whole recommended Feb. 4 that council approve an additional $84,602 to help cover the cost to replace two existing plow trucks at the end of their life cycles and increase the fleet by one.
“This makes us look horrible,” Ward 4 Coun. Joseph Giordano said of the request for more money. “This really hurts.”
While he acknowledged the importance of the equipment, he emphasized that councillors worked to keep the tax increase low for 2025 and this comes as residents are seeing the new bills.
Ward 3 Coun. Ben Verkaik noted the funds would not impact the tax rate as they are set to come from reserves, including $51,640.50 from the development charge reserve and $32,961.50 from the capital replacement reserve.
Still, Mayor James Leduc agreed it’s “tough” to support the request, but he stressed the need for the plows.
“These are pieces of equipment you can’t say 'no' to in the end, because it’s about safety on our roads,” he said.
The replacements include one single-axle and one tandem-axle truck, both with dump box, snow removal and sand/salt equipment, while the additional truck is also single axle with the same equipment to help with snow removal in Bond Head.
Ward 5 Coun. Peter Ferragine asked why the single- and tandem-axle replacements were both budgeted at $410,000 when tandem-axle trucks are typically more expensive, with the town spending about $460,000 for one in 2023 and now expected to pay about $470,000 for this one.
In response, transportation manager Joe Coleman explained the costs weren’t fully known when staff prepared the draft budget documents in August, so they relied on costs from prior years as a placeholder, but didn’t have time to make an update before the budget was presented to council in November.
That didn’t sit well Deputy Mayor Raj Sandhu, who noted staff had several months to make the change, while Leduc said there were actually two years over which costs should have been reviewed and updated from 2023 and 2024, ahead of the 2025 budget.
“That’s your job as manager,” the mayor said. “There’s no excuse for that. I don’t buy that.”
The cost difference was partially due to the drop in the Canadian dollar value, but also that manufacturing costs for both the trucks and equipment have increased, according to the report.
In light of those issues and given market uncertainties in the face of potential U.S. tariffs, both Giordano and Ward 7 Coun. Peter Dykie asked how staff could be certain of the current estimates. Vanessa Morum, the town’s manager of legal, risk management and procurement, explained the town plans to pay a lump sum up front to ensure prices will be held for the 18 to 24 months required to equip and deliver the plows.
“We will not be paying extra,” she said, noting the local dealer has a history of providing vehicles to the town and a “great reputation.”
In addition to a discount from the local Currie Trucks dealer of $14,000 for prepayment, and about $24,000 from the sale of an older vehicle, that’s expected to offset the cost difference of about $122,800 between the nearly $1.2 million council authorized for the vehicles on Nov. 13 as part of the 2025 budget, and the new cost estimate of slightly less than $1.3 million.
Only Ward 6 Coun. Nickolas Harper voted against recommending the additional funds, and said he felt the need to start pushing back against cost escalations.
“I’m drawing the line here,” he said.
Ward 2 Coun. Jonathan Scott was absent.
Recommendations from committee of the whole are considered for approval at the next regular council meeting.