REQUEST FOR APPROVAL – SEWER PUMPSTATION CONTRACTED SERVICES

TOWN OF VIEW ROYAL COUNCIL REPORT

TO: Council
DATE: May 20, 2026
FROM: Ivan Leung, P.Eng, Director of Engineering
MEETING DATE: June 2, 2026

REQUEST FOR APPROVAL – SEWER PUMPSTATION CONTRACTED SERVICES

RECOMMENDATION:

THAT the Town enter into a contract with Caird Mechanical Contractors Ltd for the routine maintenance of the Town’s sanitary sewer pump stations (mechanical assets), until the end of 2026, for a total value of $132,470 net of GST.

ALTERNATIVE OPTIONS:

The maintenance works are required and are immediately needed. Staff will investigate business continuity options later this year to ensure that the Town’s sanitary sewer pump station assets are consistently maintained in the mid to long-term through contracted services, in accordance with the Town’s purchasing policy.

PURPOSE:

The purpose of this report is to seek authorization to enter into a maintenance agreement with Caird Mechanical Contractors Ltd (“Caird”) to ensure smooth, uninterrupted service of the Town’s sanitary sewer pump stations (mechanical components), and to ensure long term performance of the critical pump station assets.

Staff spent the last year seeking suitable contracted services to fill the preventative maintenance gap of the Town’s pump station mechanic assets. Interviews with industry trades, other local governments and regional operators only identified one service provider at this time that could suitably do the work, which was Caird. Caird is a local mechanical service provider for industrial, commercial, and marine processes. Caird are familiar with the Town’s pump stations as they have conducted repairs in the past for the Town on an as and when basis. Finally, Caird also provides repair services for other local governments, so they can provide innovative, tested and expert solutions and opinions that are not readily available to Town staff.

BACKGROUND:

Over the last few years there were issues that resulted in current levels of service being insufficient to ensure the regular and long term performance of the Town’s sewer pump stations, specifically the mechanical components (valves, piping, and all fixed equipment within the pump station wetwell. The primary issues stem from:

1. A lower level of service from the Town’s current maintenance service (Township of Esquimalt). Historically, the Township of Esquimalt provided preventative maintenance services to the Town. However, the Township of Esquimalt, needing to significantly increase its level of service to maintain its own assets, notified the Town a few years ago that it would be significantly limiting its ability to provide their intermunicipal services. Currently, inspection intervals are below standard and the Township no longer provides maintenance services in confined spaces, a necessary service to maintain mechanical components of the pump station.

2. An internal audit based on the updated maintenance guide. In 2025/2026 staff retained sanitary pump station operational specialists to update the Town’s sanitary sewer operations and maintenance guide. The purpose was to ensure current regulations, standards and best practices are met¹, and is based on the Town’s maintenance model, level of service and risk acceptance. The internal audit of the Town’s current maintenance practices have identified critical deficiencies in its preventative maintenance program that must be addressed.

3. Aging infrastructure. The existing preventative maintenance model may have been suitable in the past when Town infrastructure was young and contracted services was more readily available. However, today the Town’s sanitary sewer pump stations are approximately 69% consumed², meaning that the system has aged to a point where a lift in preventative maintenance is required to reduce the risk of failures, both low and high impact. Additionally, with other local governments and contracted services looking for efficiencies to manage operational costs, availability of people to maintain the Town’s assets are strained.

Staff conducted a risk assessment of the current situation. Should the Town continue with its existing levels of service, the level of risk is considered to be an ‘extreme risk’, identified due to the probable expectancy of a critical or catastrophic failure in the pump station system(s).

¹ Statutes, regulations and best practices are included in the Inter-Governmental Relations Impacts section of this staff report.
² Per the Town of View Royal Sustainable Infrastructure Replacement Plan (2022)

ANALYSIS:

Impacts and implications can be summarized as follows:

Community Impact: Care and maintenance of the Town’s 17 sanitary sewer pump stations are critical in providing smooth, uninterrupted service of conveying sanitary sewerage from Town residents, businesses and institutions towards the CRD trunk, and eventually to the CRD wastewater treatment plant. Almost all properties within the Town conveys sewerage into at least one pump station before it discharges into the CRD trunk system.

Financial Implication:

Cost

Caird quoted an upset total of $132,470 (net of GST) to provide the expedited preventative maintenance services until the end of the year. Given the expedited nature of the work, and the need to bring asset conditions to an acceptable level, staff are in agreement with the cost. In accordance with Purchasing Policy #1600-021, a Notice of Intent to direct award the work to Caird was posted onto BC Bid, to which no challenges to the Notice was apparent. Therefore, staff recommend the direct award of the work to Caird in the amount of up to $132,470 (net of GST).

Impact to Budget and Recommended Funding Measures

Given the lift in level of service was not informed in the 2026-2030 Financial Plan, staff estimate that the award of the work, taking into consideration regular commitments but also deferring non critical work, would place the sanitary sewer budget approximately $90,000 +/-10% overbudget this year. Staff’s recommendation is to supplement the overage using surplus from the Sewer Operating Fund.

Cost of Failures

Failures in the Town’s pump stations have a wide range of impacts: low impact issues can result in higher, more regular repairs and replacements being required (higher maintenance budgets with no long term performance improvements), while high impact issues can include sewer backups, damage to private and public property, and environmental damages resulting from overflows into natural areas and watercourses (significantly high repair costs, significantly high costs to remediate private properties, significantly high environmental remediation costs and fines). The cost of failures would far exceed the $134,470 opportunity cost to improve preventative maintenance services to acceptable standards.

Inter-governmental Relations Impact: If current maintenance levels are to continue, or a lift in level of service to acceptable levels is not provided, then intergovernmental impacts could result as follows:

1. Ministry of Environment – failure mechanisms that could impact sensitive ecosystems and streams that may illicit fines or penalties
2. Department of Fisheries and Oceans Canada – failure mechanisms that could impact fisheries that may illicit fines or penalties
3. Province of BC Environmental Management Act, Municipal Regulation – failure to operate the wastewater collection system in a proficiently in all matters related to the water cycle is in contravention of the Act.
4. CRD Liquid Waste Management Plan – the Town has identified pump station upgrades and maintenance as the primary priority to reduce the chances and impacts of sewer overflows.

ALIGNMENT:

The recommended option aligns with the Town’s following core guiding documents as follows: