Officials with the MD of Bighorn are concerned with the price per tonne for rock used during the state of emergency in June, when several mountain creeks breached their banks, causing unprecedented flooding and damage in the communities of Exshaw and
Officials with the MD of Bighorn are concerned with the price per tonne for rock used during the state of emergency in June, when several mountain creeks breached their banks, causing unprecedented flooding and damage in the communities of Exshaw and Dead Man's Flats.
Invoices sent to the MD for work during the June flood show Lafarge Canada Inc. charged $55 a tonne for rip rap and Downer Holdings Ltd. $30 a tonne for rock, which the company sources from Lafarge and Graymont.
In total, for 30,000 tonnes of rock used in the hamlet of Exshaw, Lafarge charged $1.65 million before taxes, while the total charged for rock by Downer for work in Lac Des Arcs and Dead Man's Flats equaled $15,419 before taxes for 740 tonnes.
However, the invoice from Lafarge does not include $245,000 in equipment, supplies and staff time, which spokesperson Michelle Gurney said equals 630 hours, four quarry trucks, two loaders, 8,400 litres of fuel and personal protective equipment for those working during the emergency.
"Our plant was flooded when this happened, our berm was breached at the north end and we suffered $8 million in damages to our plant and at that time our plant team made the decision to focus on supporting the community," Gurney said.
Downer, on the other hand, charged approximately $70,000 for equipment and labour in relation to the work they did during the flood.
Councillor Paul Ryan said he was disappointed, but not surprised to see the invoice from Lafarge.
"Business is business," he said. "I was disappointed because I saw an opportunity to rebuild the relationship between the community and Lafarge being lost.
"I was shocked when I saw what we were paying for clean rip rap from another supplier. We sent the invoice to the province and they sent it back.
"Council will now have to decide how to deal with the fact that Lafarge's invoice works out to about $8,000 per Exshaw household."
Chief administrative officer Martin Buckley indicated at council this week the province sent the invoice back to the MD to verify the amount of rock that was used.
The reason for the $55 per tonne rate for rock, Gurney said, is that Lafarge supplied high quality rock intended for cement manufacturing.
"We also supplied the largest size of rock we had in the quarry at the time of the flood," she said. "Fifty-five dollars is market price and a blended rate for us - we supplied a lot of large rock… the value to us is more than what we charged.
"For a community member it might just look like a rock; to us, the makeup, the chemistry of that rock, was very valuable to us, so because of the event it was a distress call we had to respond to."
Lafarge has also provided six residential lots it owns to the MD at no charge for two years for temporary housing units to be located.
"We hope that is serving a need for people - we were quick to make those lots available," Gurney said.
