Great day for Great Falls: RM votes to build water-treatment plant

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This article was published 13/02/2018 (3162 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

After living under a boil-water advisory for 12 years, there’s a chance residents in the Winnipeg River village of Great Falls will be able to toast 2019 with a drink from their taps.

Heading into Friday’s special meeting, the RM of Alexander council appeared deadlocked and the proposed $5-million water-treatment plant seemed headed for defeat.

But in a surprise turn of events, one of two councillors who had opposed the facility, Gerry Dupont, changed his vote. The motion passed three to one, with only Coun. Jack Brisco opposing.

The facility could be completed before the end of the calendar year, Alexander Reeve Ray Garand said.

“There was big clapping at the end, big cheers,” said Great Falls resident Jim McNeill, one of about 40 residents of the community’s estimated 150, who attended the meeting. “It’s great. It’s long overdue,”

Various councils have worked for almost two decades to secure such a facility for the community located 120 kilometres northeast of Winnipeg.

Great Falls was built by the Winnipeg Electric Company in the 1920s while it was constructing the nearby hydro dam. Employees rented homes from the company, and that arrangement continued after it was taken over by Manitoba Hydro.

In 1987, Hydro paid the RM of Alexander, which was a Local Government District at the time, a total of $50,000 ($94,000 in today’s currency) to take the village off its hands. Its one proviso was the RM replace the town’s water system by 2013. Hydro also agreed to chip in $750,000 towards the cost of the water system.

The community has an existing water-treatment system operated by Hydro that’s a half-century old and doesn’t meet national drinking-water standards. Residents have been living under a boil-water advisory for more than a decade.

In the agreement passed by council, the Manitoba Water Services Board will pay $2.5 million of the cost, and Manitoba Hydro has upped its contribution to $1.5 million.

The village will put up about $500,000 from its 82 households paying $6,000 each for hook-up. The RM will make up the remaining $500,000, using $100,000 annually over five years out of the roughly $160,000 annual federal gas tax revenue.

Garand said beyond the legal obligation the RM had to Great Falls, the resolution of the issue “is about the betterment of the whole municipality.”

“There are so many municipalities fighting amongst themselves and while they’re busy fighting, they’re losing,” he said.

Garand said construction could start as early as April, and it’s hoped the plant can be completed by the end of the year.

bill.redekop@freepress.mb.ca