The Sechelt Water Resource Centre has won two more awards this month, bringing the total number of trophies for the treatment plant to six so far.
This month the treatment plant was named as the grand winner in the Canadian Design-Build Institute (CDBI) awards of excellence. The plant won top marks for innovation and design quality as well as using best practices in building.
Also in October, the plant received the 2016 Environmental Award from the Association of Profes-sional Engineers and Geo-scientists of B.C. (APEGBC).
The award recognizes a project “that includes exceptional environmental protection or environmental enhancement.”
The CDBI and APEGBC awards are in addition to the 2015 Environmental Achievement Award from the Canadian Construction Association, the 2016 Award of Excellence from the Association of Consulting Engineering Companies in B.C., the 2016 Sustainable Community Award from the Federation of Canadian Municipalities and the Southern Interior Construction Association’s 2016 Innovation Award.
“They’re coming out of the woodwork,” Sechelt Mayor Bruce Milne remarked this week.
He noted that Maple Reinders, one of the companies involved in the building of the Sechelt Water Resource Centre, would be appearing as a delegation before council next month to highlight the numerous awards for councillors.
Milne said council hasn’t yet been informed of all the awards, as it’s not the District of Sechelt applying for them.
“These are industry and trade-sector awards. Some of the nominations are coming from the engineers because Urban Systems would be applying within their network and Maple Reinders would be applying within the building and development industry,” Milne said.
“Trade awards are what they are, they’re recognition within the sector for work that’s being done or contract and design that’s being done.”
He said the awards are “good – it shows that it was state-of-the-art practice,” but noted the award announcements have also stirred up some feelings of resentment in those who were opposed to the new treatment plant.
“It’s problematic in the sense that the emails that I’m getting this week show that our community is still quite divided and upset with the water resource centre,” Milne said.
“This brings up negative feelings for some people, positive ones for others, and I think that for us, the council and the community, the only real award is for the citizens and taxpayers when 20 years later we look back and say ‘that really worked out exactly as it should have.’”
Milne said council is still waiting on the Deloitte report that will include a construction audit of the Sechelt Water Resource Centre and also shed some light on what kind of value Sechelt got for the $24.9-million cost of the new treatment plant.
He said the report is about 80 per cent complete and council hopes to see it by the end of November.
