WSP Canada the firm Algonquin Highlands has hired to conduct mandatory septic re-inspections in the municipality has lowered the fee it will charge to residents who’ve already had an inspection completed by a third party.
As reported earlier in the Times last month Algonquin Highlands councillors took exception to a fee the company had proposed for the review of recent inspections performed by other companies.
The fee it had proposed was $144.50 per property to be invoiced to the property owner.
That cost included $48 for review of the inspection report and credentials of the third-party inspector; $42 for transcribing the report from the third party into digital format; $19 for following up with the third party for questions regarding credentials and identification; and $33 for project support completed prior to the third party identification.
At their March 22 meeting councillors took issue with the idea that WSP was charging to check the credentials of third-party companies for each inspection when it seemed that once a company had been verified there was no need to repeatedly verify its credentials.
During their April 5 meeting councillors received a report from chief building official Dave Rogers that read “WSP has confirmed that the BCIN [building code identification number] check would be applicable for one installer/inspector for however many sites they inspect in the township. WSP will check the number each time to ensure the BCIN has not expired but will move that item into their $19 per property fee for follow-up on credentials.”
Including taxes the revised fee from the company is $127.20 to be billed to property owners who’ve already had inspections completed.
“What mechanism do we have in place to let people know there is this fee in place . . . and that they could be facing two fees?” asked Deputy Mayor Liz Danielsen.
Rogers said the information would be included in a mail-out and that it is also on the township’s website.
“All the information’s on the webpage” he said.
The fee for residents having their inspections performed by WSP as part of the program will be just less than $180.
