The provincial government has wrapped up two weeks of talks with Manitoba municipalities aimed at determining how to best address their infrastructure needs.

The consultation process began June 11 and was scheduled to conclude June 22. The talks were intended to allow municipalities to have a say on how funding under the next cost-shared infrastructure program will be used.

Local Government Minister Ron Lemieux said earlier this month municipal infrastructure is a priority and his government wants to ensure it is properly addressing the needs of all municipalities.

Lemieux and other provincial officials spoke with delegates at seven regional meetings hosted by the Association of Manitoba Municipalities.

Municipal representatives were informed of plans for a new cost-sharing program and asked for feedback on how past infrastructure programs worked.

The possibility of new infrastructure dollars comes as welcome news to municipal officials in St. Francois Xavier and Cartier.

SFX chief administrative officer Robert Poirier said that extending water services in the RM is at the top of the municipality’s wish list if new funding is made available.

"We would really like to see water services extended west," he said. "Currently our water lines only extend about a mile and a half west of the Baie St. Paul Bridge, so we would like to push that line all the way up to Poplar Point."

Poirier added that extending sewer services to the west is another possibility for the RM.
In Cartier, CAO Anne Burns said her municipality’s infrastructure needs are much the same.

"In Cartier sewer and water is the big thing," she said. "We have just about completed the St. Eustache sewer project, but there are still areas in the community that require sewer. Some people in rural areas don’t even have water lines and they either have their own wells or they have to truck water in."

Burns said water and sewer projects can be extremely costly, especially if a municipality doesn’t have the population to support such projects.

She added the municipality would also like to see more done to address the aging state of local recreation halls and community centres and fix bridges and roads that were washed away during flooding the past few years.

prescott.james@canstarnews.com