The RM of Portage la Prairie achieved several key accomplishments in 2024, which former Deputy Reeve Roy Tufford says the council is proud of. With Reeve Kam Blight retiring from politics and stepping down as president of the Association of Manitoba Municipalities, Tufford took over over leadership until this past Friday when he resigned in order to run for Reeve in the coming byelection. Councillor Garth Asham is now Acting Reeve.
He highlights some of the year’s major developments.
"We completed that big water reservoir and pumping station just to the west of Roquette," says Tufford. "It was a joint venture between us, the province, the city, and Yellowhead. It's provided a lot of capacity for us to grow our industrial park, and it’s a good project overall. It was a very expensive project, but it's all done now. That's the first major thing."
Another notable achievement was the completion of groundwork and design for a water retention structure on Rat Creek.
"That's going to help us mitigate costly road washouts during the spring runoff. We're working together with Whitemud Watershed, and hopefully, if we don’t have a lot of water running down Rat Creek this year, we can get that project done this summer. It'll backwater up and allow us to release it in a more timely fashion, instead of at a time when it’s going to wash all the roads out. That's project two."
Tufford also points to the completion of drainage work on a parcel of land at the Peony Farm, just north of Reil Street.
"There's a nice parcel of land there that wasn't really developable because of drainage. We fixed all that. Now, it can be developed for residential housing, which is one of our priorities—getting some residential growth in the peripheral areas around the city."
Additionally, Tufford mentions the expansion of the Davidson Drain, which runs from Road 42 to the Portage Diversion. This project was important for alleviating flooding in the spring, particularly for Roquette and the nearby Catapult composting facility.
"We expanded the capacity there to give relief for both Roquette and Catapult, which were experiencing flooding in the spring. We fixed that up for them. It was a fairly expensive project, and we also did about $180,000 worth of asphalt overlay and patching on our paved roads. We don't have a tremendous amount of paved roads, but those that we have always need to be upgraded, so we did that as well."
Stay tuned for more on the RM's future plans in an upcoming story.