Ottawa chips in extra $150M for sewage plant mega-project

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This article was published 17/12/2024 (263 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The federal government has promised an additional $150 million toward the multibillion-dollar upgrade of Winnipeg’s largest sewage treatment plant— an increase the city’s mayor hopes won’t be the last.

The funding for the north end sewage treatment plant was noted briefly in the senior government’s fall economic statement, which was released Monday.

“To build the houses Canadians need, we need to invest in the capacity for communities to grow and densify. Adequate water and solid waste infrastructure is essential to making this happen. The federal government is doing its part to help cities build the infrastructure needed to build more homes,” the statement said.

It notes the funding would be provided over four years but won’t begin to flow until the 2026-27 fiscal year.

Mayor Scott Gillingham said the new money is welcome but more is needed to ensure the overall $2.38-billion, three-phase upgrade is completed. A water and waste report released in June estimated the price could raise again to reach $3 billion.

In 2023, the cost estimate for the second phase of the three-phase mega project soared by $482 million to $1.035 billion from $553 million. That sparked concerns about the construction timeline, since a tri-government funding agreement only covered the initial price.

“As it relates to (the) $480-million cost increase… absolutely the $150 million goes a long way to help assist in those cost increases. But we also have a third phase that needs to be built… We need to have all three levels of government partnering to get all three phases built and funded,” said Gillingham.

He expects the third phase of the project, a biological process to greatly reduce the amount of algae-promoting nutrients that flow out of the plant, will cost at least $1 billion.

No funding has been approved for it yet.

The mayor said he’d prefer to see the next round of federal funding be handed out sooner than 2026 but a firm commitment with details about the pledge would help the city plan and finance the project.

“It’s a step in the right direction. We’re still not there. I welcome … this commitment but we have a ways to go,” said Gillingham.

The mayor has said Winnipeg is facing a “crisis moment” to ensure it doesn’t run out of sewage capacity, which would be expanded during the second phase of the north end plant upgrade.

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“We have to get the north end plant built to accommodate the growth in our city, both now and, certainly, in the future. We only have four to six years of capacity, it’s going to take four to six years to build. We need to build it to replace the aging infrastructure, to protect (Lake Winnipeg) and, certainly, to accommodate the growth in our city,” said Gillingham.

The mayor discussed the promise in an interview Tuesday afternoon. A federal government spokesperson said questions about the announcement would likely be answered on Wednesday.

In November, the Manitoba government promised an additional $30 million for the north end sewage treatment plant upgrade.

joyanne.pursaga@freepress.mb.ca

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Joyanne Pursaga
Reporter

Joyanne is city hall reporter for the Winnipeg Free Press. A reporter since 2004, she began covering politics exclusively in 2012, writing on city hall and the Manitoba Legislature for the Winnipeg Sun before joining the Free Press in early 2020. Read more about Joyanne.

Every piece of reporting Joyanne produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print — part of the Free Press‘s tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press’s history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates.