The Friday announcement of new projects was made at legislature. Photo courtesy saskatchewan.ca
Seven northern Saskatchewan communities are set to receive $9.9 million in provincial and federal Clean Water and Wastewater Fund money for local water infrastructure projects set to be completed in 2018.
Green Lake, Michel Village, La Loche, Pinehouse, Ile a la Crosse, Stony Rapids, and Creighton are among 75 communities in the province to receive a total of $70 million – $45 million from Canada and $25 million from the province – for CWWF projects announced in Regina on Friday by federal Minister Ralph Goodale and provincial Minister Donna Harpauer.
Harpauer says there were more applications than they could accept, and explained the criteria looked at before the list was whittled down.
“With water there’s always health and safety so that becomes number one,” she said. “Another thing we look at very closely is ‘is it regional? Are we serving more than just one municipality?’ It’s always an advantage if it’s a regional project.”
The CWWF has approved past projects, but with this one there is a quick timeline for completion of this batch of projects, Harpauer said, which also factored into the selection process.
In total, the projects are worth $95 million, meaning the communities will be pitching in $15 million of their own funds.
Creighton, Stony Rapids and Ile-a-la-Crosse are getting more than $1.5 million for their projects, and another heavy hitter is Prince Albert which is receiving $9 million for its new River Street water reservoir.
Mayor Greg Dionne was on hand for the Regina announcement, and pointed out Prince Albert serves a regional base.
“Everyone’s in a deficit budget situation but they (the province and feds) realize that we have to keep people working and we have to fix our infrastructure otherwise it’ll get worse. And in this case we find our projects are coming in cheaper,” he said.
He says with the economy in a downturn it costs less to get these projects done now.
Ile-a-la-Crosse Mayor Duane Favel is quoted in a news release issued by the province, saying “without this federal and provincial support, we would never have the capacity to move our project forward.”
List of northern Saskatchewan municipal projects approved in new announcement:
Creighton: $2.625 million Water and Sewer Main Replacement
Ile-a-la-Crosse: $2.475 million Sewage Pump Station #1 & 4 Upgrades
Stony Rapids: $1.875 Raw Water Supply and Water Treatment Plant Upgrades and Reservoir Expansion
Green Lake: $1.275 million for Sewage Pump Station Upgrades
La Loche: $600,000 Sewage Pump Station #1, 4 and Poplar Bay Sewer System Upgrades
Michel Village: $600,000 Raw Water Supply Upgrades
Pinehouse: $450,000 Sewage Pump Station #3 & 4 Upgrades