By Kristen Shane

The footing of the Municipality of Kincardine’s reliable cash cow seems to be slipping somewhat. Bruce Telecom could hand over a lighter cheque this year than usual to its municipal owner, Mayor Larry Kraemer said last week.

Exactly how much the telecommunications company’s revenues may drop Kraemer couldn’t say. The firm is still two month’s away from its year-end.

In any case, he said, “It’s not normal for the corporation.”

Bruce Telecom’s average payout to the municipality, its owner, has been slightly less than $1.3 million each of the last three years.

But this year, competition and a slow roll-out of its Fibre to the Home project in Southampton have caused Bruce Telecom some problems, said Kraemer.

The company is replacing old technology with higher-speed fibre-optic cables in Southampton to keep pace with its competitors. But a couple of technical issues had to be ironed out, said Kraemer, so the project is taking a year and a half to two years longer to get to where the company had planned it would be at this stage.

The company has also invested more than normal into capital projects, so it is losing more than it normally would through the depreciation of that infrastructure, said Kraemer.

“I expect in the long term that it’s quite viable, it’s quite a good business,” he said. “But it does have a couple issues in the short term – short term being the next one or two years.”

The issue arose when councillors were set to discuss a new formula the company has proposed to determine how much of its dividend would be paid out yearly to the municipality.

In a written report to council, treasurer Brenda French originally suggested council accept the calculation Bruce Telecom executives had proposed when they last visited council in August. But when French stood before council last week, she asked that the issue be deferred. Her department is set to bring forward financial information on Dec. 3 that “may have an implication on the dividend methodology,” she said.

A frustrated councillor Ron Hewitt pointed to a line in French’s report that said that the municipality’s chief administrative officer and Bruce Telecom board secretary John deRosenroll had alluded to the fact that the company may finish this year below budgeted projections.

“It says we might be getting less money. I’d like to know what’s going on,” said Hewitt.

DeRosenroll assured Hewitt and the rest of council that company officials would give a full update to council when they are slated to attend its meeting next Wednesday, Nov. 18.