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Town getting fed cash infusion for wastewater project
Posted on September 14, 2016 by Taber TimesPoll
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By Trevor Busch
Taber Times
tbusch@tabertimes.com
The Town of Taber will be receiving federal infrastructure funding for completion of a wastewater project for the community following an announcement earlier this month.
Under the federal Clean Water and Wastewater Fund, Taber has been allocated more than $1.86 million for upgrades to the town’s industrial wastewater lagoon. The provincial government has contributed $480,220 to the town for a biological nutrient removal sludge treatment upgrade, as well as $79,366 for a water treatment plant upgrade, through their Alberta Municipal Water/Wastewater Partnership program.
“It’s great to see that Taber got some money through an infrastructure program,” said Bow River MP Martin Shields. “There were a few in the south, and the Taber one was $1.8 million from the feds, another 25 per cent will come from the province. So 50 per cent from the feds, another 25 per cent from the province, and Taber will do the last 25 per cent I believe.”
The announcement on Sept. 1 by Amarjeet Sohi, Minister of Infrastructure and Communities, and Brian Mason, Alberta Minister of Infrastructure and Minister of Transportation, is part of a bilateral agreement that makes more than $1.08 billion in funding available under two new federal programs — the Public Transit Infrastructure Fund and the Clean Water and Wastewater Fund.
“Mayor (Henk) DeVlieger was very positive about them receiving the money for their new wastewater project,” said Shields. “That’s good news for Taber.”
The federal government is providing up to 50 per cent of funding — more than $543 million — for projects supported through these programs and the provincial government and municipalities will provide the balance of funding.
Shields praised the hard work of municipal administrators with the Town of Taber for insuring the project proposal was effective in meeting the criteria of the federal and provincial governments.
“One of the things I’ve always suggested to mayors and reeves is if they’ve got projects it’s helpful if I know, and that’s one that the mayor was very good at supplying me with the actual full documentation which I was able to personally give to the minister of infrastructure, whether or not it helped who knows. But it is nice to see a well thought out wastewater project, where money was supposed to be spent this time, go to Taber. They did a good job of putting a proposal together. Projects don’t get approved if they’re just fly by night. There’s got to be a lot of work done on the municipality’s part to get those projects in, and have the right supporting documentation with them. It wouldn’t have been approved if the Town of Taber hadn’t done that work.”
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