Saint John gives go-ahead to new drinking water system

After years of discussion and waiting, Saint John has finally given the green light to a new drinking water treatment system.

Councillors voted to accept the public-private partnership Friday evening.

Mayor Mel Norton had described this project as his number one priority.

"Today is a huge day for the City of Saint John," said Norton.

"It's an absolute historic day for the city, the beginning of a construction project that will be the largest municipal infrastructure project in the history of New Brunswick."

That project should mean clean, safe and reliable drinking water for residents, something many councillors said was long overdue.

"I'm planning on retiring my Brita water filter when this sucker gets turned on," said Coun.Ray Strowbridge.

The federal government and the province will each pay one quarter of the $229.2 million budget.

Today is a huge day for the City of Saint John.- Mayor Mel Norton

The other half will be paidoff by city residents over the first 30 years of the project.

That money will be paid to the winning construction consortium, Port City Water Partners.

It is made up of nine private partners, including two Irving construction companies, FCC Construction and Gulf Operators.

Some councillors had been reluctant to take the public-privatepartnership route.

"Basically I don't like it," said Coun.Bill Farren. "But as I said earlier, when I started, when I was going door-to-door, people asked me to do whatever we can to make sure we have clean safe drinking water."

In the end, all councillors who spoke said they were convinced this was the quickest and best option.

The city says it expects construction to begin before the end of the winter, and for the project to be completed by the end of 2018.