Huntsville Director of Operations and Protective Sevices Tarmo Uukkivi was before the Town’s General Committee on October 25 to paint a picture for the reason $2,746,360 in capital projects budgeted for 2023 are being carried over to 2024.
“So this is the story of that request to provide a little bit of background,” explained Uukkivi. He said his department has had a number of vacancies throughout the year, which he attributed to several factors. He said there is a naturally high turnover rate of over 30 per cent among front-line workers. “That’s across the industry, that’s not specific to Huntsville that occurs. People are moving around. It’s well known in the current economy that people are seeking all kinds of different opportunities and we get a lot of turnover.”
He said there were also some key managerial vacancies in the department for various reasons “and so to get that work completed, we really need managers overseeing the capital projects process,” said Uukkiv who noted that being short-staffed was a challenge.
Most importantly, said Uukkivi, while $2.7M looks like a large number, three very large projects fall within that amount. “Two of which we haven’t had very much control over in that they’re partnerships with the District, being Anthony Court and Meadow Park rehabilitations that have been budgeted for and we’re just waiting for those projects to get underway and then the third one being the set of lights at McCulley Robertson park,” said Uukkivi.
“So the other part of the story that needs to be painted here is that we have a very narrow window within which to get a lot of this work done. Frozen ground on one end of it and the flip side is the actual season when user groups are using these parks. That gives us a short window in the spring and a short window in the fall to get this work done,” said Uukkivi, adding that finding contractors and having the managerial team in place to actually be able to manage those projects becomes a challenge despite the fact that work has already begun on all three of those projects.
In his report to the committee, Uukkivi provided a summary of everything his department is responsible for. “We have been extremely busy throughout the year making sure that we’re trying to tackle everything that we possibly can. The economy, the availability of contractors, and pricing has been a complicating factor in that story as well,” said Uukkivi.
Huntsville Mayor Nancy Alcock asked Uukkivi whether he was concerned with being able to deliver on a much larger envelope next year. Uukkivi said most of the key vacancies are now filled. “I am incredibly proud of the work that they do every day and they are performing now at a level that I haven’t experienced yet and that has to do with capacity. We actually have the capacity now thanks to some of the support I’ve received from my colleagues and kind of getting places filled.”
Uukkivi told councillors additional staffing requests would be coming forward. “With that additional staffing, we should have no problem addressing this.” Uukkivi reiterated that much of the groundwork for carryover projects is already underway “so the new projects should not be an issue in the coming year.”
Councillor Bob Stone asked whether the department is fully staffed and ready to go for winter operations. Uukkivi said recruitment continues but that is no different than any other year. “It’s commonplace for us. We do have a couple of vacancies that we are trying to fill, particularly around the seasonal operators to support the full-time contingent but all of the equipment is up and running, ready to go. It’s been converted over to winter operations. We are working actively with our labour relations team, meeting regularly, making sure all the routes are up to snuff… we will be ready for the winter,” he concluded.
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