A tour of Hope’s sewage treatment facility by the federal minister of infrastructure Friday gave Mayor Wilfried Vicktor a chance to plug the need for disaster mitigation on the Fraser River.
Amarjeet Sohi, Minister of Infrastructure and Communities until a cabinet shuffle this morning moved him to natural resources minister, toured the district’s Pollution Control Centre (PCC) on Tom Berry Road Friday. The PCC is halfway through a $2.93-million upgrade to bring it in line with environmental standards set by the federal government.
“The potential damage if the Fraser floods, it just might be the biggest natural disaster in the history of Canada,” Vicktor told Sohi Friday as they stood on the banks of the Fraser where water is released after going through the PCC. “So we did send a letter to the Prime Minister’s office…a couple of years ago and at the time we didn’t receive a response.”
Vicktor pointed out First Nations communities along the Fraser are likely be most affected by a severe flood.
Sohi, referencing a recently launched $2-billion disaster mitigation fund, asked Vicktor to forward the letter to him.
During the tour, both Vicktor and Hope’s chief administrative officer John Fortoloczky told Sohi the PCC upgrades would be impossible without the joint federal-provincial grant received, which totalled $2.43 million. The first phase of the project is done, the second phase will involve pressurizing the wastewater to remove algae and other solids before the water is released back into the Fraser.
The district recently ran into money troubles on the phased project, as market costs had gone up and the grant only covered the specified amount.
Originally the district planned to pay $498,695 from reserves. On June 25 Mayor and council agreed to take an additional $520,000 from reserves to pay for the second phase. These upgrades are now mandatory for Hope to meet wastewater regulations, whereas previously Hope was operating under a grandfathered environmental certificate.
The design of the second phase will also be scaled down, for example reducing the size of one planned building, to shave additional costs off the project.
At the June 25 meeting, Coun. Donna Kropp and Gerry Dyble suggested communicating with the province to help in the case of unexpected costs to phased projects.
“We, as a federal government, once the tenders are awarded and the contracts are signed, if the cost overruns after that we have no ability to give additional funding,” Sohi said. “Because our programs are designed in a way that we look at the costs prior to the work being tendered.”
Sohi, however, promised to work with Hope and explore options during the second phase of the PCC.
Sohi also spoke on other needs municipalities like Hope face, including housing, transportation and recreational and cultural infrastructure. Housing, in particular, is a need he said he hears about in every community he visits.
“We have launched a national strategy on affordable housing, we are investing over the next decade $40 billion dollars of combined investment of provincial, municipal and federal and non-profit sector. So there’s a lot of money available for social housing,” he said, responding to a question on how the federal government can speed up the building of affordable housing.
“We are also working with the private sector to make sure they are able to build more rental units, affordable rental units, so CMHC is working with them. So there are various options municipalities can explore in collaboration with the provinces.”
Related coverage:
Hope, Area B get water infrastructure money
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