Quesnel City Council has approved a million dollar contract for paving and road repairs in 2019.
The total cost was actually 1 million and 25 thousand dollars.
The successful bid belonged to Quesnel Paving.
It was also the only bid, which didn’t sit well with Councillor Mitch Vik…
“This is a tough one here, I am a bit concerned that we only have one bidder. How is that supposed to be competitive for taxpayer money and all that, that troubles me and I wish there was a way to somehow entice others to bid on projects on contracts, because one bidder calling the shots makes me nervous.”
Others agreed that more than one bid would be better but Councillor Laurey-Anne Roodenburg and Mayor Bob Simpson both pointed out that there is so much public sector investment going on in the province that there are some cases where there are zero bids.
The contract for Quesnel Paving includes an option for two more years at the same price, if both parties agree.
Mayor Simpson felt they could do some work before making that decision…
“It would be interesting if we could find out what the paving rates are in some of the other communities so that we have a benchmark. That will potentially help us make the decisions for year two and three and it may give us more comfort when we only have one bid.”
This year’s bill is up 11 percent from the last three year contract that began back in 2016.