A month later, she said the design will be delayed until October or November, though a floor plan has been completed. Coun. Les Ellsworth asked if this would have any effect on the city’s grant applications for funding towards new pool construction cots. “It would have really no effect on that,” said city manager Anthony McInnis. “As far as we know, there’s still no timeline for those announcements.” In October 2019, council passed a resolution seeking an Investing in Canada Infrastructure Program (ICIP) grant, which would cover 76 per cent of an estimated total cost of $20 million for a new pool, with the city chipping in just over $5 million.
City manager Anthony McInnis said council was directed to proceed to second reading by the Public Utilities Board of Manitoba (PUB), which is ultimately responsible for establishing the water and sewer rates. Between first and second reading, the PUB recalculated the numbers submitted by the city after first reading last November and requested some minor changes in the costs listed in the bylaw. The changes did not affect the water and sewer rates of $3.81 and $1.79, respectively, or the quarterly service charge of $22.20 per water meter, but did raise the minimum quarterly charge for customers with 15 millimetre water lines, which includes 14 cubic metres of water, to $100.60 from $100.53. For customers with 20 to 150 mm water lines, the minimum quarterly charges have increased between 13 cents and $11.73. The changes are a result of adjustments to the commodity water and wastewater charges included in the minimum quarterly charges.
“They’ve asked our chief financial officer to make a change under Schedule A to the table,” said McInnis. “They had recalculated some of the numbers.” The changes did not affect the water and sewer rates of $3.81 and $1.79, respectively, or the quarterly service charge of $22.20 per water meter, but did raise the minimum quarterly charge for customers with 15 millimetre water lines, which includes 14 cubic metres of water, to $100.60 from $100.53. For customers with 20 to 150 mm water lines, the minimum quarterly charges have increased between 13 cents and $11.73. The changes are a result of adjustments to the commodity water and wastewater charges included in the minimum quarterly charges.
“Back in December the province proclaimed Bill 4 which is the Retail Businesses Hours of Operation Act,” explained city manager Anthony McInnis. “The bill eliminated the Sunday shopping hour restrictions. Businesses are no longer required to close after 6 p.m. on Sundays. The City of Thompson’s bylaw was based on the Retail Holiday Closing Act. Since that’s been repealed our bylaw no longer has any power.” The province has told municipalities that they still have the power to regulate retail operation hours in their communities if they decide to, McInnis noted. Coun. Jeff Fountain was wholly in favour of repealing the bylaw.
That is the highest number of EMS calls the department has ever head and it was the fifth straight year that there were more than 6,000 EMS calls. Fire calls, on the other hand, numbered 473 last year, down 264 from the highest ever total of 727 in 2019. With the exception of 2018 and 2019, fire calls have generally hovered from the mid-400s to mid-500s over the past 10 years. Calls requiring response from multiple units have increased greatly over the past decade, reaching nearly 3,300 in 2020, the highest number ever. 2019 was the first year that the department had more than 3,000 multiple unit calls and there have only been over 2,000 twice before that, in 2016 and 2018.