The Town of Bonnyville's successful bid for a provincial grant has brought discussions regarding the regional waterline back to the forefront.
A $350,000 Alberta Community Partnership (ACP) grant was awarded to the town last month, providing them a large chunk of the funds needed to begin work on a regional water strategy.
“There are three components when building a regional waterline; the technical and engineering, the governance model and approvals,” said Bonnyville Mayor Gene Sobolewski.
With the province committing to the project the town, MD of Bonnyville and City of Cold Lake can begin to talk about a governance model for the waterline. Questions like who is going to oversee operations, if a commission needed and if a utility needs to be formed, will all be debated.
“We are looking forward to working on the governance and figuring out what the entity will look like that would be supplying water to the region,” said Cold Lake Mayor Craig Copeland.
The regional waterline project would see a large waterline supply clean drinking water from Cold Lake to Cold Lake First Nations and Bonnyville. According to Sobolewski the regional water strategy is an integral part of getting a waterline in place. A governance structure needs to be determined before the project can move into the engineering and construction phases.
“We have to go through the governance structure and figure out what kind of organization is going to be looking after it and if we need to form a commission or if we formulate a utility,” said Sobolewski.
While discussions between the three municipalities have yet to take place, Copeland says that city council has already touched on the possibility of the city taking control of the waterline. Throughout the preliminary discussions council indicated an interest in taking a look at getting into the utility business.
“We haven't voted on it but we have discussed about getting into the business as a water utility corporation and being in the business of transporting water to whoever the provincial government identifies as the client,” said Copeland. “The idea is we would operate the treatment plant and distribute the water to the various customers.
Cold Lake taking control and operating the project is something that could come up when the sides all get together to try and move the regional water strategy forward.
“We will see how it shakes out, but I think there is benefits in having one entity be in charge of distributing drinking water to the region,” said Copeland.
The MD of Bonnyville and City of Cold Lake partnered with the town in the ACP grant application. This cooperation between the three municipalities was what helped them gain the $350,000 grant.
“The Government of Alberta encourages strong working relationships between communities and regional approaches to municipal service delivery and supports regional and capacity building priorities through the ACP program. Your partnership exemplifies this ideal,” wrote Danielle Larivee, Minister of Municipal Affairs, in a letter to the town.
In order to get the City of Cold Lake to back the bid for an ACP grant, the town had to ensure that another study analyzing the implications of using Cold Lake as a water sources was conducted.
“We have also recognized that there is still some questions from the City in regards to the overall withdrawal of water and the impact on Cold Lake. They want to have a secondary analysis. These grant funds are going to be utilized for these efforts as well,” said Sobolewski.
The in-depth study will be conducted to ensure the province's decision to use Cold Lake as the main source for the waterline is the right one. The provincial government concluded their study on the lake and selected Cold Lake as the main source for the line back in February 2014.
“We want to make sure (the province's) numbers are correct and that Cold Lake itself is sustainable for the whole region,” said Copeland.
Both Copeland and Sobolewski felt the grant was a positive sign for the project, feeling that it might be a sign of things to come.
“You wonder if this is the government signaling their intent to finally put some money to the water line,” said Copeland. “I think that the drinking water is a high priority with the government.”
The 2016 budget, which was released on April 14, has earmarked $400 million to the Water for Life program over the next five years.
