$28.5M for Westman water projects

The provincial and federal governments are spending $28.5 million to help fund water and wastewater projects in Brandon and Boissevain, Premier Wab Kinew announced Tuesday.

Kinew told a crowd of municipal leaders at the Association of Manitoba Municipalities fall convention in Winnipeg that the NDP government and Ottawa are spending nearly $77 million on five projects around the province in support of water and wastewater facilities.

In Westman, $22 million is going for water and wastewater projects in Brandon, and $6.5 million for a lagoon in Boissevain.

Kinew, along with Municipal and Northern Relations Minister Glen Simard, the NDP MLA for Brandon East, made the announcement.

Brandon Mayor Jeff Fawcett said the funding, which isn’t earmarked for anything in particular, will help cover the costs for multiple projects, including the city’s $139-million upgrade of the 26th Street water treatment facility and $40 million for lift station and water main work.

“It’s good to see it come out, and it assists with these projects that we know are extremely costly,” Fawcett told the Sun from Winnipeg during day one of the three-day convention.

The City of Brandon had applied for funding a “long, long time ago,” Fawcett said, and it’s good that it came through.

The city had already received funding for the water treatment facility upgrades but hadn’t received any for the lift stations.

“We work really hard with both levels of government,” the mayor said. “When we go in there, we say ‘we’re making major investments in our community. We’re trying to pay for as much as we can, and we need you guys to continue to help us.’”

Of the $22 million, Ottawa is putting in $12 million through the Canada Housing Infrastructure Fund (CHIF), while the rest is from the province through a provincial stream of CHIF.

For the water treatment facility project, the city in July said it is putting in $29.37 million for the project through loans, while the province is contributing $46.63 million and Ottawa’s share is $44 million, for a total of $120 million. An additional $19 million was set to come from the Investing in Canada Infrastructure Program and a debenture taken out by the city.

Fawcett said the extra funding helps alleviate pressures for the taxpayer on a long-term investment.

“People might not notice it as a great, big, significant thing, but it is,” he said. “It is significant in the long term.

“It’s going to put these things in place for us, and we’re going to live off them for a long, long time, just like people in the ’40s and ’60s built things and we lived off them for a long, long time.”

Kinew in a press release said the cost of living starts with housing, and housing isn’t possible if the infrastructure isn’t in place to support it.

“These vital water and wastewater projects give rural municipalities the capacity so they can grow, attract new families and keep life affordable,” Kinew said.

Judy Swanson, head of council for the Municipality of Boissevain-Morton, said the community is “delighted” with Tuesday’s announcement.

“For smaller communities of any size, infrastructure is huge money, no matter what you do,” Swanson said. “When we have the support from the provincial and the federal government, it really makes a difference.”

The $6.5-million contribution allows the project to be “pretty much shovel-ready.”

Ottawa is accounting for $3.54 million of the new contribution, while the rest is coming from the province. The federal government is pitching in another $1.2 million, while the municipality is putting in about $2.2 million, for a total of about $10 million, she said.

Construction on the new lagoon should start next year. Crews will also remove the sludge from the existing lagoon, which was built in the 1960s, and reline it. A mechanical system designed to help the lagoon function properly is also being added.

“It’s served its purpose, it’s outdated, it needs to be replaced,” Swanson said. “It certainly has served us well. But it is time to be upgraded.”

The new lagoon will be built next to the existing one on the south side of the community.

New developments and industries wouldn’t be able to set up in Boissevain if the work didn’t happen, Swanson said.

“If we couldn’t replace the lagoon, it really stops the growth of your community because you have to have those facilities up and running, and they have to be ready for expansion,” she said.

The addition, along with the mechanisms, will allow for “decades” of growth.

She added that the funding is “a long time coming,” and council had already been working on it before she joined as head of council about eight years ago.

The other three projects announced on Tuesday include $22 million each for the Red-Seine-Rat Wastewater Co-operative and Pembina Valley Water Co-op capital plan, along with $4.4 million for the Morden sewer line to Winkler.

» alambert@brandonsun.com