City setting aside $1 million for design of road to Shoal Lake 40 First Nation

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This article was published 08/12/2015 (3971 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

City hall is setting aside $1 million for the design of an access road and two bridges to connect Shoal Lake 40 First Nation.

The funding will be approved at a special meeting of executive policy committee Wednesday morning before brought to council.

City council has already committed a total of $4 million for its share of the design and construction of the two bridges and the access road, dubbed Freedom Road, which will link the First Nation community with the mainland.

The northwestern Ontario First Nation was effectively cut off from the mainland by the construction of the aqueduct that provides drinking water to Winnipeg.

An administrative report said the preliminary design of the two bridges is complete and construction began on the first, the Falcon River diversion bridge, earlier this year.

The city will engage a consultant in early 2016 for the detailed design of the Shoal Lake Aqueduct bridge.

The city paid $100,000 in 2010 for its one-third share of the initial cost of creating a western access winter road to Shoal Lake 40. Last winter, the city paid $50,000 to open the winter road for the bridge projects.

Council will be asked to formalize a funding agreement to cover one-third of the design costs for the projects up to a maximum of $1 million.

Council will also provide any amount short of the $1 million to the First Nation to help offset its share of the design and construction costs for the road portion of the project.

The cost of the new road, estimated to be $30 million, will be shared by Winnipeg and the Manitoba and federal governments.

While the First Nation community is located just east of the Manitoba- Ontario border, the new road will connect the First Nation community to the Manitoba portion of the Trans-Canada Highway, west of Falcon Lake.

aldo.santin@freepress.mb.ca