INNISFAIL – The Town of Innisfail is adding another new truck to its fleet.
At council’s regular meeting on March 24 unanimous approval was granted by council to give administration the go ahead to purchase a 2024 Ford F750 water truck from The Auto Source Inc. for a total price of $169,000.
The purchase price of the new water truck is within the town’s budgeted amount of $175,000 and will be funded from the town’s fleet capital reserve.
It will also include a $5,000 budget for additional items (radio, mats, seat covers, tools, etc.) to be coordinated by the town.
Since late January, the Town of Innisfail has added several new units to its truck fleet.
On Jan. 13 council approved the purchase of five pickup trucks for Town of Innisfail staff worth a total of more than $250,000.
The purchases were made at local dealerships.
On Feb. 10 town council unanimously approved a motion for administration to purchase a new 2025 Freightliner Truvac Coywolf Hydrovac truck for $722,561.76.
This purchase was made from an out-of-town dealership.
The total cost for the town so far in 2025 for new vehicles is about $1,141,561.
The most recent water truck purchase will also come from an out-of-town dealership.
Steven Kennedy, director of operations for the Town of Innisfail, told council his department emailed the three local dealerships “just to keep them aware” of vehicles that the town had up for requests for quotations (RFQ).
Kennedy said the town has been using an old 1997 GMC three-ton Top Kick water truck that had been modified from a gravel truck to a water truck.
He said the GMC truck was used across all municipal departments.
Council was told the GMC unit had become high in maintenance cost and in hours used.
Kennedy said the old unit will be sold once the new Ford unit is purchased.
Council was told a RFQ was issued through the Canoe Procurement Group and town website on Feb. 18 and closed on Feb. 27.
Kennedy said the town only received two submissions, with one - Auto Source (Canada) - providing options of gas or diesel.
Administration recommended Auto Source’s gas option of $169,000 over the diesel at $185,000, as well at Metro Ford’s diesel bid of $230,583.95.
Coun. Gavin Bates asked about the evaluation process of choosing gas over diesel.
“Based on our mechanics looking at this, as well as our fleet manager, the gas unit meets the needs of what we need it for,” Kennedy told council. “The diesel unit was over our budget, as well as more unit than what we felt we needed, so the gas fit what we needed.”
