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June 24, 2016 - 2:30 PM
ENGINEERING FIRMS, OTHER LEVELS OF GOVERNMENT SUBMITTED SOME OF HIGHEST INVOICES
KELOWNA - If you think your hydro bill was big, think again. The City of Kelowna paid Fortis B.C. almost $7 million last year to keep the lights on.
Combined with payments to other suppliers the city paid out more than $304 million in 2015, according to its recently released annual report.
As a mid-sized municipality, the city has hundreds of suppliers ranging from large engineering and consulting firms to much smaller companies supplying such things as rental toilets, taxi rides and paint.
The list does not provide contract details and most are well below $1 million, however there are still lots of exceptions.
The single biggest suppliers the city has, as measured by dollar amounts, are generally other levels of government.
The city paid out $43.33 million to the Receiver General of Canada, the B.C. Ministry of Finance received $38.1 million, followed closely by the Central Okanagan Regional District, which was paid $31.22 million.
The Central Okanagan Regional Hospital District was paid $11.33 million while B.C. Transit was paid $13.38 million. The B.C. Pension Corporation invoiced $12.59 million.
Legal firm Young Anderson was given roughly $20 million to hold in trust for the city.
The B.C. Assessment Authority was paid $2.02 million while the Okanagan Regional Library invoiced $5.59 million. Tourism Kelowna charged the city $2.16 million for services rendered.
Some of the largest billings from private companies include engineering or construction firms like Bird Design Build Construction which is building the new police services building and charged the city $1.52 million.
Boygues Energies and Services Canada billed the city $3.14 million. Copcan Civil Ltd and Copcan Contracting invoiced $4.34 million and $2.28 million respectively.
Emil Anderson Construction was paid $2.1 million while Greyback Construction billed $1.8 million. Maple Reinders, an engineering firm, invoiced $8.72 million.
PCL Construction invoiced $3.95 million while Sawchuk Developments Co. billed $1.11 million. SNC Lavalin Inc. was paid $1.4 million and Westlake Paving & Aggregates billed $1.22 million. OK Environmental Waste Systems charged the city $3.31 million.
Other payments over $1 million include Royal Star Enterprises ($1.04 million) and Royale Landscaping ($1.59 million), RG Arenas ($1.29 million), Pyramid Excavation Corporation ($1.83 million), NAPA Auto Parts ($1.85 million), and Imperial Parking Canada ($1.23 million).
Suppliers invoicing less than $25,000 are not listed in the report, however the total bill for those smaller suppliers reached $9.52 million.
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