Eaglecrest: Ka-Ching, Ka-Ching

For those of you keeping track of how much the Town is spending on Eaglecrest Golf Course, you can add another $755,428 (plus the applicable PST and GST) to the tab. This is the amount Council recently spent to purchase new golf course maintenance equipment for Eaglecrest Golf Course. If you were not aware of this purchase, you were not alone. The purchase was authorized at what was essentially a closed meeting of Council. This is not the transparency and disclosure that the public is entitled to and which was specifically promised for Eaglecrest Golf Course. I hope that Eaglecrest Golf Course will not be the same as other projects (the waterfront comes to mind) where the total price tag is not disclosed. Councillor Harrison mentioned at a recent Council meeting that he had been getting questions from the public about the cost of the project and that the public was only able to locate random bits of information from various searches on the Town website. Perhaps, the Town could create a project web page that details the budget for the project, lists expenses as they are incurred and lists revenues as they are received.

The purchase of the maintenance equipment is an example of the disclosure of information by the Town. I only became aware of the purchase of the equipment by chance when reading a Council meeting agenda days after the purchase had been authorized. Here is how it happened. I attend most council meetings and subscribe to emails from the Town. As a result, I receive notices of upcoming Council meetings. On March 13, 2026, I received notice of a meeting set for March 16. The notice stated that the meeting was to be a closed meeting. Thus, not one that I could attend. I subsequently received a notice for a Council meeting set for March 25, 2026. With the agenda package for the meeting were minutes for the March 16 Council meeting indicating that, in addition to the business conducted in the closed meeting, Council conducted further business, namely, the authorization of the purchase of $755,428 of golf course maintenance equipment.

The purchase of the equipment took place at a Council meeting that was briefly open to the public and then closed for the closed business matters. I would have attended that short portion of the meeting had I known that the purchase of the equipment was being conducted at it. However, no notice to this effect was provided to the public. A review of the Council Calendar on the Town's website for the March 16 meeting showed the closed meeting agenda plus a "Late Item". The late Item was the resolution authorizing the purchase of the equipment. There was no indication on the Council Calendar as to when the Late Item was added. Nor was there any indication that the Late Item business was being held in an open portion of the meeting. In any event, I only became aware of the matter on March 20, days after the meeting had been held. Since I wanted to hear Council's discussion on a fairly large purchase, I went to the Town YouTube channel to view the recorded portion of the meeting, only to discover that no record was made of the open portion of the meeting.

I raised my concerns by an email to Mayor and Council and the CAO. I received a response from the Interim Deputy Director of Corporate Services. The response stated that the March 16 meeting was called to order at 3:30 PM and resolved to proceed in camera at 3:34 PM. Assuming that at least one minute was spent acknowledging that the meeting was being held on the traditional lands of the Qualicum First Nation, amending the agenda to add the Late Item and getting down to business, Council managed to spend $755,428 in approximately three minutes - more than $250,000 per minute.

The rationale for rushing through with the purchase at the March 16 meeting was that Council needed to ensure that the equipment would be available for the upcoming golf season. The fact that the purchase could have been authorized at the already scheduled March 25 open council meeting seems to have escaped Council. This is another example of the speed at which Council is proceeding with "all things Eaglecrest".

Council has not explained how the maintenance equipment will be utilized at Eaglecrest Golf Course. I assume that since the Town purchased the equipment, it will form part of the agreement for the operation of the course by the Town chosen operator. In my mind, requiring the operator to provide its own equipment would have made more sense, especially when repairs, maintenance and replacement are taken into consideration. It will be interesting to see the actual terms of the agreement to see how the Town deals with this issue.

Council has budgeted $2,500,000 "for capital expenditures related to the reconfiguration of the golf course and other capital investments required to bring the course, facilities, and equipment to a suitable operational standard" as quoted in a staff report. My calculation on the spend of the $2,500,000 budget so far is $1,181,000 for the actual reconfiguration (the moving of dirt, building greens and tee boxes, etc.), $755,428 for the equipment and $300,000 for improvements to the clubhouse (as disclosed in an update announced by the Town) for a total of $2,236,428. Not included in the calculation is the PST ($52,880) and GST ($37,700) on the equipment. I am not certain if the Town is able to offset the GST, so it may or may not be an actual expense of the project. Also, it was not clear in the Town's announcement whether the $300,000 improvements to the clubhouse were to be borne by the Town or the operator or somehow shared. I should also point out that, notwithstanding the contract of $1,181,000 for the reconfiguration (ie., the movement of dirt, etc.), Council approved a total cost of $1,650,000 to allow for an expanded scope of work, if required. It is uncertain whether this contingency was intended for the purchase of the equipment, for added features (as you may recall, one of the initial plans called for construction of a bridge that was deleted from the $1,181,000 contract) or for unforeseen difficulties. This emphasizes the need for proper accounting, and disclosure of same, so that the public is informed of the actual costs.

The promise currently from staff and council is that a full accounting of the costs will be provided at the end of the project. We can only wait and see if this is ultimately provided. It would be in Council's best interest to provide regular reporting as more frequent disclosure will give confidence to the public that staff and Council are controlling project costs by making necessary adjustments during the course of the project. This may also help to avoid sticker shock at the end of the project.

As a footnote to the above, the purchase of the Eaglecrest Golf Course was completed some time ago. Accordingly, the total acquisition costs should now be known, readily available to the Finance Department and released to the public. I have made numerous requests for this information but, other than promises that the information will not be withheld, have received nothing and recently felt compelled to file a Freedom of Information Request for this information. Hopefully, this will not be the case at the end of the project.

James Noel

March 29, 2026

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