City seeks to borrow $15M for treatment plant

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This article was published 08/07/2023 (812 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Brandon City Council will introduce a bylaw to borrow $15 million for the final phase of upgrades to the municipal water treatment plant at its next meeting.

In January, Premier Heather Stefanson announced that Brandon would be receiving a further $15 million from the province toward the project on top of the $38 million it had already provided.

A media release issued by the City of Brandon on Friday stated that in order to qualify for those funds, it must contribute $15 million of its own funds.

Mayor Jeff Fawcett said in the release that the upgrades are required to both access the provincial funds and fulfil provincial standards.

“Upgrading our water treatment facility is necessary to meet provincial standards, so we can’t and won’t let this important project wait — our families’ health is too precious,” Fawcett was quoted as saying.

“And this new step of contributing an additional $15 million to unlock those matching funds from the province is an easy decision because we do not intend to leave provincial money on the table, and we do intend to keep this project on track.”

He thanked the higher levels of government for coming through with funding for Brandon’s largest-ever infrastructure project. The final phase is expected to start construction sometime in 2024.

The money the city will borrow for the final phase of the project will be on top of the $40.67 million it has already contributed. The federal government has also provided $46 million to the project under the Investing in Canada Infrastructure Program.

Though a copy of the borrowing bylaw was not released on Friday, the media release stated it will cap the interest rate for borrowing the remaining $15 million at 7.5 per cent, though administration expects the actual rates to be “substantially lower.”

Last year, the city announced it would be almost doubling water and wastewater utility rates between 2023 and 2026 to help pay for previous and future water infrastructure upgrades, including work at the water treatment plant.

Speaking by phone on Friday, Fawcett said the city has yet to receive permission to implement the rate increases from the Public Utilities Board. That means that the first increase, scheduled to take place on July 1 this year, has yet to take place.

The mayor said the city has had to adjust some of its budgeting as a result.

Friday’s release said once the final phase of upgrades at the plant is complete, it would end up costing the average household about $10 more in water rates per quarter ($40 per year).

Speaking to the Sun by phone on Friday, director of utilities Alexia Stangherlin said the work done at the plant to date has involved the construction of a new chemical building.

That work has allowed Brandon to change the chemical it was using to treat water from chlorine gas, which can be hazardous to transport, to the less volatile sodium hypochlorite.

The final phase of work involves a few elements, Stangherlin said. They include the replacement of the plant’s 1940s-era water intake, the construction of new piping, a settling pond and a second water treatment area that uses a membrane-based system rather than one using chemicals.

According to Stangherlin, the idea is for both treatment methods to be used simultaneously, with water treated from each process being blended together before being released into the city’s water supply.

As provincial regulations for water quality have increased, she said the city has been issued a few non-compliance warnings.

The work will also increase the facility’s capacity to treat water, though that isn’t currently an issue the city is experiencing.

“Membrane treatment will produce a higher-quality end product,” she said. “We can remove more particulates and more organics.”

The new treatment method is more complex, and staff have already been training on the process. It’s also more expensive to operate, but the city is still determining to what extent.

Stangherlin said the city is envisioning a 25-year lifespan for the facility once upgrades are complete. She was unsure if the city would need to hire additional staff, but said there’s lots of time for that to be figured out since construction is expected to take multiple years.

“I want to reiterate that Brandon water is safe and great, and we look forward to improved water quality, improved access to potable water,” she said.

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