City Council approved the recommendation of the purchasing agent to award the purchase of two new trucks at the last meeting of council.

This resolution brought forward a now old debate – two wheel drive or four wheel drive. Surprisingly though, this was not the most discussed resolution at council.

Councilor Duncan Wong once again found himself on the other side of a debate from the Mayor (and most of his fellow councillors), saying that to him it seems hypocritical that council would want the city to own 2WD trucks when they all own 4WD. He added that that it makes sense to him for the city to buy four wheel drives with a switch that turns them into two wheel drives, but that the city doesn’t need to be buying as many trucks as they are.

Mayor Fenske responded to the comments made by Wong about the City buying more trucks, saying that they are following the policy in place, which is to have the new trucks replace old ones in the city’s fleet, and to have the old ones sold at auction.

Fenske added that the city does have four wheel drive trucks in the city fleet for the fire and emergency services. He also said that a statement made in council that the City would come to a stop if we had a significant snowfall (like we had this past March) is factually untrue, as only a small portion of the work force would be using the vehicles and be affected.

The resolution, which passed 6-3, was a recorded vote at the request of Councillor Wong. Voting in favour of the resolution was Mayor Fenske, Deputy Mayor Valentino, Councillor Smook, Councillor Foley, Councillor Ellis and Councillor Byer. Councillor Kolada, Councillor Wong and Councillor Matechuk all voted against the resolution.

The recommended tender is from Rock Country G.M., and is for two new ½ ton regular cab 2WD 2018 Chevy Silverado’s at a total cost of $58,937.98.