Montreal Gazette

City opens water main repair training centre

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The city of Montreal inaugurate­d a new training centre Friday that will educate city employees in how to maintain and repair the city’s aging water system.

Unique in Quebec, all of the city ’s blue-collar workers involved in water main and sewer repairs will be trained there.

Focusing on hands-on training, the goal is to improve the internal expertise of city of Montreal employees and to advance maintenanc­e of the system.

Poorly maintained for years, Montreal’s undergroun­d water system of drinking water supply pipes and sewage drains is among the oldest in North America, and showing the signs of its age.

The city announced this week it will spend close to $2 billion over the next three years to repair its undergroun­d water infrastruc­ture.

The training centre is part of a push by the city to transform the way it maintains its water system, under a project dubbed Maxim’eau, by computeriz­ing operations, training employees and reworking job descriptio­ns and the way it manages supply.

The technical training centre will allow employees to try new work methods and tools in a controlled environmen­t, the city said.

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