7 Apr 2025 Council meeting Transportation

Councillor Manly Motion re: City of Nanaimo and Regional District of Nanaimo Synergism re: Public Works Yard Upgrades

Motion
That Council direct Staff to explore, as part of the City of Nanaimo’s process to update the facilities at the Public Works Yard located at 2020 Labieux Road, synergies between the needs of the Regional District of Nanaimo (RDN) and the City of Nanaimo, and report back to Council on how the Public Works Yard upgrades could assist the RDN with their transit related infrastructure and vehicle maintenance needs while reducing costs for both levels of government.
Minutes, page 9
Sources
Agenda itemCity agenda, whole meeting
Put forward by Paul Manly Source

Paul Manly Yes

Thank you. We've been hearing from taxpayers concerns about the public works yard, the cost of these facilities. We're also hearing from taxpayers paying for RDN facilities that they're concerned about. Costs. We have two levels of government that are closely tied together. We are the biggest payers of the Southern Transit service. And there's a need for expanded facilities. For buses, for repair shops, mechanic shops, for storage, for parking, et cetera. And I just think. It's a wise idea to at least have the conversation and see what synergies we can work together. Between these two levels of government. To see if there's ways that we can save taxpayers dollars. By working together. And developing a property that makes sense for both entities. Thank you.

Leonard Krog No

We have two horses. One of them may be going fast and one of them may be going. Slow, and we want to try and tie them together in some kind of a team, and the belief that it'll get the public wagon there faster. I don't see that there's. Any evidence that that's going to be the case, and we certainly never had a request formally from the regional district of the Nimo to the city. Of Nanaimo to council to do this, and I appreciate the well intentioned motives behind. Councilor Manning. Bring this forward, but I can't support it.

Questions and answers

Councillor Janice Perrino
Speaker identificationConfident
No

asked
Thank you, your worship. And a question through you to Mr. Sim, Mr. Sims. This seems very obvious to me that the work that councilor Manley has talked about
Bill Sims
Speaker identificationConfident
answeredGeneral Manager, Engineering and Public Works
Possible. Coordination between ourselves and the RDN is something that you've obviously already done. Discussions with RDN. And the size of their required size to service their fleet would be significant. And probably I can't speak to the size, but I know it's quite a bit more significant than where they're at. We haven't sort of considered specifics, like perhaps adding a few bays to our mechanics or our fleet maintenance facility, and that may be a possibility. But those are the sorts of conversations that we can have and do. I would note that the current public works facility is tight for space. We've optimized it as just part of regular operations. We've shrunk spoil piles and gravel piles and stockpiles as much as we can. The other thing that I've learned from the RDN is that they're on a different time horizon, so we might be out of step to provide them with much value or it would create a delay for our own project, and I think I'd be concerned about the actual cost. Nevertheless, I think it always bears reconsideration and just being aware and conscious of what their needs are at the same time. I'm just not convinced that they would be interested in having if we offered them a few bays for an example, whether they'd be interested in having a fragmented facility. A larger storage in one location and repairs in another and the infrastructure requirements to support both might be significant. In thinking in terms of hydro we're also looking at electrification of our own fleets, and I think RDN is in the same boat. So that's another consideration. And just there's a bunch of things going on. And I wouldn't want to discount the possibility of working together because we'd like to continue with that. They were a number of years ago quite interested in sharing office space. And again we were out of sync on timing. Their office space needs were more immediate than we were able to provide. Okay, so that's just a bit of comment. I hope that's
followed up
helpful. I won't be voting in favor of this. To me. This is stepping out of our role as a council, getting definitely into the weeds and telling them how they need to be reporting back. To us. On upgrades that I know they've already worked on. I can't see the need. For this, and I don't want to waste any more staff time, so I'll. Be voting against it.