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On Tuesday, the federal government got elbow-deep into a Regina wastewater project with an announcement on new funding.
It was part of the Prime Minister’s launch earlier in the day for the Build Communities Strong Fund — a $51 billion fund over the next 10 years for municipal and provincial infrastructure.
Buckley Belanger, Secretary of State for Rural Development and Sask. Liberal MP, was on hand to announce $29 million of the fund will go to the City of Regina for its South Trunk Wastewater Upgrade Project.
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The project is upgrading the pipes for the south trunk sewer system, allowing it to better handle a bigger population and storm events, helping to reduce flooding, basement backups, and discharges of untreated water into Wascana Creek.
Mayor Chad Bachynski said it’s amazing to be making progress on this front.
“We’ve been talking about the infrastructure deficit that we have. We’ve been talking about the need to catch up on that deficit, what it means in terms of growing our communities, helping with intensification, helping with basement flooding — this is a project that checks all those boxes,” he said.
The project is set to start its third phase this year. Bachynski said it had already been budgeted for, but now this money from the federal government will free up city money for other infrastructure. He said the city will go back to its priority list for what that might be.
“There’s a long list of wastewater projects, transportation projects, all the road upgrades that need to happen — all of those projects all come into play when we talk about our infrastructure deficit,” he said.
Bachynski said the city has spent at least six months working on this, including making trips to Ottawa. He said on the last trip, the cities were able to speak with the Prime Minister and the housing minister about the need for speed in this funding.
“For the federal government to listen … and actually hear how we execute projects and adapt the funding model and the funding stream to what we need was incredibly helpful, and it’s the only way we got this done,” explained the mayor.
Federal Secretary of State for Rural Development Buckley Belanger. (Lisa Schick/980 CJME)
Belanger said the project is a fine example of everyone collaborating and communicating.
“I think it’s important that, not only do we need to improve our communications with the municipal sector right across our province, but we need to also engage them earlier on in some of the decisions impacting their communities,” explained the Secretary of State.
He said there are going to be a lot of demands on the infrastructure money.
“As we move down this path, the more partnerships, the more engagement we have, the more opportunities we’ll have to solve some of the infrastructure needs that might come to Canada as a whole,” said Belanger.
He was expected to make another such announcement in Estevan later Tuesday.
