volume 1 - Halifax Regional Municipality

Statement Concerning Halifax Water IRP – Tellus Institute Team
Results from this effort are needed prior to commitment of major capital resources to
accommodate growth.
Halifax Water has acknowledged several other important uncertainties and/or data gaps (e.g.,
stormwater quality assessment, climate change vulnerability assessment and adaptation plan,
fiscal impact assessment, as well as the Regional Stormwater Functional Plan being conducted
by HRM). These limitations need to be addressed to ensure HW’s planning is comprehensive
and fully integrated, provides robust strategies for cost effectively meeting its service
requirements, and the benefits of the IRP are realized to the maximum extent possible.
While HW’s initial IRP utilizes the best available information and does a credible job in
addressing the purposes identified by the Board in its call for an IRP, 1 it does not fully meet them
due to the lack of certain critical information described above. In particular, the initial IRP does
not provide the Board with adequate information required to make informed decisions about
specific major future capital programs. Thus, the results of the IRP should be considered
provisional, not final, and subject to modification as the additional information required is
developed and the Recommended Plan is modified as appropriate. HW recognizes these
limitations in the introductory section of the IRP in its call for an adaptive management
approach.
Based on the IRP results and Recommended Plan, HW prepared a short-term implementation
plan covering the period 2013-2015. HW’s implementation plan for this three-year period
identifies expenditure levels far greater than existing levels and more than double of those in the
current Five-Year Capital Plan for this three-year period. At the same time HW indicates that
any significant increase in expenditure levels above the spending identified in the Five-Year
Capital Plan for this three-year period is likely unrealistic from the viewpoint of the increased
revenue required as well as Halifax Water institutional capacity. Thus, in addition to the
technical analyses required to fill in data gaps, there is also a need for an institutional capacity
assessment.
We acknowledge that the wastewater system in particular requires significant new investment for
system repair, upgrade, and renewal. However, we take no position on the specific expenditure
levels identified in the implementation plan for 2013-2015. The results of HW’s initial IRP have
identified several key data gaps and uncertainties and HW has proposed several programs to
address these.
Recommendations Going Forward
HW’s immediate priority should be to refine and detail an Action Plan, including milestones and
a schedule, for conducting the programs it has proposed to fill the identified information gaps
1 The purposes outlined in the UARB December 2010 decision were: to provide a framework for Halifax Water to
evaluate alternative planning scenarios for its water, wastewater and stormwater services in an integrated fashion;
to provide long-term direction for HW; to serve as an umbrella for which more detailed, facility- or programspecific
capital investment analyses; to identify and plan for risks; and to provide the Board with the information
and context it needs to make more fully informed decisions.
October 31 2012 Page 271 of 272
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