St. Paul Wastewater Treatment Facility Finished

The wastewater treatment plant in St. Paul, Alberta was completed last month with the assistance received from the federal Gas Tax Fund. The fund provided $180,000 for the upgrade. The project focused on the installation of another wastewater fine screening unit that would effectively prevent rags, paper, plastic and other non-biodegradable solids from getting mixed into the treatment systems. As a result, the treated wastewater effluent that would flow through the Upper Therien Lake will only have a minimal effect on the water.

Member of Parliament for Westlock-St. Paul, Brian Storseth , said in a statement that proper management of wastewater is important both for those who live in St. Paul as well as for the health of the rivers, streams and lakes in Alberta. He added that the federal Gas Tax Fund provides municipalities the long-term infrastructure funding they need for wastewater projects. His views were seconded by St. Paul Mayor Glenn Andersen who said that the upgrade for their wastewater treatment infrastructure was made possible through the capital obtained from the fund.

So far, Alberta has received annual funding of $199,503,000 geared for municipal infrastructure from the federal Gas Tax Fund. For its part, St. Paul’s total Gas Tax Fund allocation from 2006 to 2014 has reached about $1.9 million.

The renewed federal Gas Tax Fund is part of the New Building Canada Plan. It seeks to give municipalities in Canada long-term and predictable funding for local public infrastructure such as public transit, wastewater infrastructure, drinking water, solid waste management, community energy systems, local roads and bridges and capacity building.

The Building Canada Plan

The New Building Canada Plan is a ten-year plan geared towards providing support for infrastructure projects that will encourage economic growth, generate jobs and provide prosperity for the residents over the long term.

The New Building Canada Plan is a ten-year $53 billion project, representing the biggest and longest federal infrastructure plan in the history of Canada. Its components are the Community Improvement Fund, the New Building Canada Fund and the P3 Canada Fund.

The Community Improvement Fund is geared towards projects that will improve infrastructure in the municipalities, such as roads, public transit and amenities for recreation. The $32 billion dollar Fund is composed of the Gas Tax Fund and the Goods and Services Tax Rebate for Municipalities.

The $14 billion dollar New Building Canada Fund was recently launched. Of this amount, $4 billion will go towards financing projects that will have national importance such as highways, public transit and those related to trade infrastructure under the National Infrastructure Component. Meanwhile, $10 billion will be deployed for projects that will be relevant nationally, locally or regionally under the Provincial-Territorial Infrastructure Component. Projects like highways, public transit, drinking water, wastewater, Internet connectivity and the like are covered under the Provincial-Territorial Infrastructure Component. $1 billion of the $10 billion is allocated specifically to communities with residents of less than 100,000. Applications are already accepted for the fund.

Funding amounting to $1.25 billion will go to the P3 (Public-Private Partnerships) Canada Fund. This is in addition to the $6 billion in funding that is already going into Canadian projects from separate infrastructure programs already in place.

Canada Needs US Commitment for Detroit River International Crossing to Proceed

Canada is still awaiting the action of Washington on whether it will commit to funding its share of the Detroit River International Crossing between Windsor and Detroit. The US is expected to contribute towards the construction of the Customs Plaza in the American portion of the Crossing which is expected to cost $250 million.

However, Canada is now unsure if the US will commit. In January this year, Michigan Governor Rick Snyder told the editorial board of Detroit Free Press that Washington strongly believes against spending money for this facility. Until the US will pledge to fund the US Customs Plaza, the project will not be able to move forward. Even if engineering studies are in the process of being undertaken and the assembling of the land in the US portion is slated to begin in the first part of 2014, calling potential partners in the private sector to bid for the project cannot be done.

This six-lane bridge that connects Windsor, Ontario and Detroit, Michigan, is a 4 billion dollar project that will create a new border crossing answering the growing demand for international trade and travel between the neighboring countries.

The Government of Canada, which expects trade to increase with the project, has pledged to shoulder a major portion of the cost. Last year, Canada’s federal government said it shelled out $35 million to purchase a Windsor property where the bridge and plaza will be constructed. It is also expected to allocate $300 million to build traffic plazas and other necessary supporting border infrastructure for the project.