A few weeks ago, the Gazette put a good news story on its front page. After almost a decade of fundraising, the call for tenders had gone out, to find the builder of our new hospital. Construction would begin in less than a year. Maybe in a few months.

The Hospital Foundation was jubilant. Luminaries and politicians sent their congratulations. That six or seven million in required funding was still outstanding was waved away by the ultra-competent fundraising team. A detail.

Contrast that confidence with Wellington’s anxiety about its new waterworks projects.

Like the hospital, waterworks expansion will both take care of the present and provide for future growth. Unlike the hospital, it will also be paid for, in large part, by that growth, both in terms of development charges, or DCs, and a larger tax- and ratepayer-base in future.

That new waterworks in Wellington would cost at least $100 million was information first canvassed on November 28, 2019 — four years ago almost to the day that it was discussed in a jam-packed council meeting last week.

Everything was going to have to be debt financed, or so it was thought. But by the time the funds for the Wellington water tower, new pump system, and new trunk lines were approved in 2021, financing agreements were in place with both Kaitlin Corporation and the developers of the former Fields of Wellington project, since then acquired by Kaitlin.

Municipal staff, working to find the funds, won an award for their work in creating “upfront” financing agreements. These secure financing from developers up front, when it is most needed, rather than after construction is complete.

And now, a water tower and equalization tank are almost a reality. The tender went out for the final part of the project, new trunk lines along the millennium trail, this summer. Six bids came in. Once that final tender is awarded, subdivision agreements will be signed with Cork and Vine and the DCs will start rolling in.

Only the call now is, “let’s press pause.” At least 50 Wellingtonians came to council, asking it to reconsider.

Imagine if, just as it was to put out the call for tenders, the Hospital Foundation decided enough was enough. It’s all too expensive. There is $7 million still to raise and no certainty about where it will come from. Time to press pause. Give the money back. Let’s call the whole thing off.

Worse things have happened at council meetings.

It feels like our future is hanging in the balance. These waterworks, and the development that will support them, are for, and about, the entire County.

Decisions about new trunk lines in Wellington are no longer just about Wellington. Just as what Wellington likes to think of as its “lone developer” is hardly alone.

Since a regional water study suggested consolidating a couple of the County’s water treatment plants, keeping one in Wellington and piping water  where it needs to go, Wellington became part of a regional water system, one that expands outward, along the millennium trail, carrying fresh, clean lake water through Bloomfield to Picton.

Most of this further buildout, too, will be paid for. At Base31, three companies, Deco, Rockport, and TACC, want to build about 7000 homes on the vast expanses of scrubland on the heights. It, too, sent a representative to Council to plead its case.

“My client is 100 per cent committed to Prince Edward County,” he said. “All it needs to build is the infrastructure, for which it is prepared to pay its fair share.”

Kaitlin sent a letter stressing its intentions to begin work as soon as water infrastructure was underway. It underscored the $50 million dollars it was prepared to pay.

The County is attracting major developers. These four are a fraction of the list of applications on the County’s planning portal. They seem to think this little place has legs. Now is our moment. Speaker after speaker at this crucial council meeting stressed working with developers to get what we want and need, to prepare for the future, to manage change to our advantage.

And to get ahead of our crumbling infrastructure before it gets ahead of us.

It is understandable that those lucky enough to live in the gorgeous lakeside village of Wellington would not want it to change. There is a heritage conservation district in the works to keep it the way it is, as much as that is possible. And Kaitlin, once planning a sprawl of single-storey homes around a golf course, is now proposing greenways, walkability, higher densities, incorporating the look and feel of the existing village into its design.

A key feature, some would say the only feature, of any new development is where it is, what it’s about, what its story is. As counsel for Base31 pointed out, successful developers do not just look at a parcel of land on which to build. They look at what they are building into.

That multiple developers are here says a great deal about the County’s long-term prospects. For jobs. For people. For amenities that people will always want — like a new hospital. That hospital speaks of the confidence our residents, and our government, have in this community and its future, and of the investments they are willing to make, not just to safeguard, but to further it.

Council in the end decided to defer its decision. To press pause. To ensure its agreements will do what they say. The move will prove to have been a smart one if it uses the extra time to gather the support it needs, and turn a pause, not into a dead end, but an opportunity.