City of Winkler staff are busy crossing the t's and dotting the i's on plans for a highly anticipated wastewater system expansion, now that funding is in place to pay for it.
The Manitoba government announced last week a matching grant of up to $10.9 million to help cover any cost overages of the project after planners were forced to go back to the drawing board back in May when tenders came back substantially higher than the budgeted $48 million dollars.
"We were really excited to hear that announcement," said Mayor Henry Siemens, adding this latest investment dovetails with the work that's been happening behind the scenes to make the project affordable. "We've had some really good conversations internally about that, and we were getting closer all the time. Now, with this additional top-up funding, we are at a place where, with a few approvals on the environmental side, we're ready to go. We now have funding that will allow us to proceed. We thank the Province for getting involved in this way. This is just really good news."
Siemens noted the $35 million in federal and provincial funding through the Investing in Canada infrastructure program announced in November 2020 is still on the table for the project as well, as is the balance of the original $48 million price tag covered by the City of Winkler and Municipality of Stanley.
With funding in place, the Mayor was asked about the prospect of a 2023 construction start date.
"I think I'd want to get a comment from our staff before I'd say, but certainly the prospect of a quick start is very much there," he said, adding the financial piece is no longer holding back the project. "It's a few approvals in terms of changes that we need to make but my understanding, in speaking to staff, is that those approvals are imminent."
Siemens says the next step is to meet with staff to get an update on the ongoing work that's been happening in the background with the Province all this time.
"They've been feverishly working on this ever since our previous plan was unaffordable. They've been working together to make sure that whatever changes in scope, whatever changes in the process we were making, still met that fundamental need that we have to increase the capacity for Winkler/Stanley."