Canmore’s contract for snow and ice removal with Volker Stevin will continue until the end of July 2017 thanks to an extension approved by council Tuesday night (Nov. 3).
The contract mirrors the one Volker Stevin has with the province, which would expire in 2016 with no mechanism for further extensions.
However, manager of public works Andreas Comeau said the contractor has agreed to extend the agreement to maintain provincial highways, and now Canmore’s roadways, for another year.
“When we sat down with Volker Stevin they were very interested in maintaining the contract with the Town of Canmore,” Comeau said. “They came back with, in our minds, a very sharp pencil and they have reduced the prices for this year and next year and held the prices into 2017.”
The budget savings translate to $18,000 in savings for 2015 and a $45,000 reduction for 2016 in its unit price schedule with all other conditions remaining the same.
Comeau said with a new provincial government in Edmonton under Premier Rachel Notley this year there may not have been enough time to renegotiate a long-term agreement for snow and ice removal for provincial highways and thus the extension to the current contract.
He said in the meantime, that gives Canmore time to explore and investigate possibly bringing that service back in-house as opposed to contracting it out.
“We will come back later next year with some sort of recommendation,” he said.
