Feds keep infrastructure dollars flowing
Niagara receiving $14.6 million in funding from Ottawa for water and wastewater system replacements and upgrades
Local politicians gathered on the lawn at the Decew Water Treatment Plant in St. Catharines to announce they are turning on the funding tap for clean water in Niagara — and it’s not a drop in the bucket.
St. Catharines Liberal MP Chris Bittle and Niagara Centre Liberal MP Vance Badawey arrived with $14.6 million in federal funding for water and wastewater infrastructure projects from one end of the peninsula to the other.
“Infrastructure isn’t often sexy, and with water and waste water, that’s often the case,” Bittle said. “We focus on community centres, pools and large-scale projects, forgetting the underpinning infrastructure that allows those projects to come to fruition.
“When the repairs are finally made to core systems, the costs are typically borne by municipal taxpayers.”
Badawey said spending on infrastructure helps in the short run by creating well-paying jobs; and, in the long term, strengthens the middle class by easing some of the burdens faced by property taxpayers and water-rate payers.
The Regional level of government itself and Niagara Falls will receive about $4.8 million each. St. Catharines will receive $2.5 million, Welland $920,000, Thorold $540,000 and Port Colborne $510,000. There is also funding for West Lincoln and Pelham.
The start dates for the projects are all in 2017.
“In my former life as a mayor, we recognized … we were dealing with infrastructure that went back 50, 70, 80 years,” Badawey said.
“As communities try to play catch up to ensure that our infrastructure is up to date, it can weigh financially on the taxpayers.”
The two biggest ticket items on the list were $1.8 million each for two projects in Niagara Falls. One will replace sanitary sewers with storm sewers as well as a water main on Hamilton Street. The second will pay for lead abatement and filter repairs at the Niagara Falls water treatment plant.
The other projects valued at more than $1 million are also in Niagara Falls and include watermain replacement on Corwin Crescent in Niagara Falls, new sewers on St. Lawrence Avenue and upgrades to the South Side Lowlift Sewage Pumping Station in Chippawa.
St. Catharines has 11 projects on the list. The most expensive is $565,000 for sanitary sewer replacement on Leeper Street from St. Paul Street West to Rykert Street.
The smallest project on tap is in West Lincoln. It is $45,000 earmarked for replacing and upgrading the sanitary sewer on Thompson Road to meet growth demands.
The Provincial government and the Niagara region will combine to match the federal level of funding, boosting the investment to about $28 million.
“Working together is exactly what the public expects,” St. Catharines Liberal MPP Jim Bradley said. “They don’t expect us to be firing cannons at one another. There will be disagreements from time to time over issues, but the public really applauds when all the levels of government work together.”