Winnipeg gets nearly $213M from federal, provincial governments for North End sewage plant upgrades

A long-awaited funding announcement for the first stage of critical upgrades to Winnipeg's North End Water Pollution Control Centre finally came on Fridaya fraction of the total $1.8 billion the city estimates it needs to fully upgrade the sewage treatment plant.

A combined $212.8 million has been dedicated to the project by the federal ($116.1 million) and provincial ($96.7 million) governments, officials announced Friday morning.

The city is spending more than$143 million on top of that.

It will all go toward the headworksat the plant on Main Street, across from Kildonan Park. The headworks ispart of the treatment process that involvesraw sewage pumping, screening, grit screening and removal.

The cost for upgrades to the plant's headworks wasestimated in April at $473 million, up$65 millionfrom an earlier estimate.

And that is just Phase 1 of the broader series of upgrades necessaryto modernize the plant and expand the entire treatment system, which is expected to reach nearly $1.8 billion.

The city has been waiting for provincial and federal funding for upgrades to the plant for years, something that Dan Vandal, the member of Parliament for St. Boniface-St. Vital, acknowledged.

"I'm very, very happy to be here as we finally, finally, finally make this announcement,"the former City of Winnipeg councillor said during Friday morning's announcement at the treatment plan. Vandalhad pushed for the project back when he was part ofthe municipal government.

"This has taken way too long."

Asked about being left to pay the majority of the costs,Winnipeg Mayor Brian Bowman shifted the focus to what has already been committed.

"Todayshouldn't be undervalued. This is progress [but] we've got more work to do," he said.

WATCH | Former city councillor, now MP Dan Vandal says funding good first step:

'This has taken way too long': Winnipeg MP says long-awaited funding for sewage treatment plant is a good first step

3 years ago

Duration 0:48

Dan Vandal, the member of Parliament for St. Boniface-St. Vital, said Friday a long-awaited funding announcement for the first stage of critical upgrades to Winnipeg's North End Water Pollution Control Centre is a "positive first step," although the funding is a fraction of the total $1.8 billion the city estimates it needs to fully upgrade the plant.

Vandal was also askedabout future funding for the plant and said he is readyto sitdown with the city and province and lookat supporting the next two phases, calling Friday's announcement "an incredibly positive first step."

Lastfall, the city asked that a transfer of $321million from the transit infrastructure stream of the federal Investing in Canada Infrastructure Fundbe used for work on Winnipeg'sNorth End Water Pollution Control Centre in effect moving it from an allocation earmarkedfortransit to a green infrastructure project.

That application had to be approved and forwarded to Ottawaby the provincial government.

Two months ago, the province told the city to explore the option of apublic-private partnership to find the funding for the second phase of the North End upgrades the creation of a biosolidsprocessing facility.

Bowman said today this will delay the project by two years. Provincial Crown Services Minister Reg Helwer said that is not necessarily the case.

The opposition NDP accused the Progressive Conservative government of having "a hidden agenda" to privatize components of Winnipeg's wastewater treatment system.

The federal Conservatives, meanwhile, accused Justin Trudeau's Liberal governmentof dithering on the sewage-treatment upgrades since 2016.

"Trudeau let down Manitobans and failed to deliver on this projectand his 2017 promise to clean up Lake Winnipeg," Kildonan-St. Paul MP Raquel Dancho said in a statement.

The city has been undertaking a massive upgrade of its sewage treatment system tomeet the requirements of its licence under theprovince's Environment Actand reduce the outflow ofnutrients into Lake Winnipeg.

In 2003, Winnipeg was ordered by the province's Clean Environment Commission to reduce the nutrient load it puts into Lake Winnipeg.

The city spent $47 million upgrading the West End Water Pollution Control Centre a decade ago,is spending $336 million on upgrades to the South End Water Pollution Control Centre and has most recently been planning upgrades at the North End plant, the largest and oldest of the three.

Commissioned in 1937, the North End plant processes70 per cent of the city's wastewater.

"It's a critical piece of infrastructure [but] it's been in desperate need of an upgrade for many years. Today's historic announcement is a major milestone in funding that upgrade,"Bowman said Friday.

"After being stalled by numerous city councils for many years, we're now making major progress."

On top of the upgrades to the North End plant,the city must also spend billions over the coming decades to replace combined sewers with separate, dedicated pipes for sewage and storm water.

The province has alsogiven the city until 2045 to capture 85 per cent of the diluted sewage that flows into Winnipeg's rivers during an average year due to theold,combined system that carriesboth stormwater runoff and raw sewage and results inoverflows an average of 22 times a year.

Winnipeg gets $213M for North End sewage plant upgrade

3 years ago

Duration 2:06

A long-awaited funding announcement for the first stage of critical upgrades to Winnipeg's North End Water Pollution Control Centre finally came on Friday a fraction of the total $1.8 billion the city estimates it needs to fully upgrade the sewage treatment plant.