The Municipality of North Huron is considering moving forward with outsourcing the operation and maintenance of its water and waste water systems.
Chief Administrative Officer Sharon Chambers, says a number of operational concerns led to the current vacancy of the in-house position (utilities department) in October of 2015, and after investigation and consideration by Council, the hiring of a third party became an option moving forward.
"We wanted to look at the future operating structure to make sure that we had adequate resources for the department going forward," says Chambers.
Council is considering Veolia Water Canada, the company that currently looks after the Belgrave water and wastewater systems for the Municipality of Morris-Turnberry.
And according to Chambers, it just makes sense to consider using the same third party now that North Huron and Morris-Turnberry are working closely together.
"We have the opportunity to blend those two contracts in the future now that we're entering into a shared service agreement with Morris-Turnberry," adds Chambers.
While no numbers associated with cost are yet available, chambers notes that those numbers and the potential contract will be made available at the next council meeting on April 18th, 2016.
The proposed contract would be for a term of 5 years.