The Alberta government's announcement last week it will fund the final stage of the long awaited South Red Deer Regional Wastewater project for Central Alberta is good news for Innisfail taxpayers, said Mayor Jim Romane.
“We were waiting as a commission, the communities that are affected by it, because the indications we had previously gotten was that there was going to be a cap on what portion was going to be funded,” said Romane. “Now they have raised the bar with this announcement, and they are going to fund the project through to the finish at 90 per cent.”
The ambitious three-phase project that will move wastewater and sewage by pipeline from Olds to the city of Red Deer was initiated in 2007 and is now expected to be completed by the last quarter of 2014 or the first quarter of 2015.
The project began with a projected total cost estimate of about $107 million. With two of the three phases now completed, the final total cost has climbed to between $134 and $138 million.
There were concerns earlier this year the province was considering funding only up to $99 million of the project, which would work out to just 80 per cent of the total cost, with the rest left up to the participating communities.
Alberta Transportation Minister Ric McIver put the funding concerns to rest on July 8, when he announced the provincial government would fund up to $121 million for the project and that the 90/10 per cent split would remain. The participating SRDRWC communities - Red Deer, Penhold, Olds, Bowden, Innisfail and the counties of Red Deer and Mountain View – are responsible for 10 per cent of the cost.
“The intent is not to requisition any of the communities for that 10 per cent. That 10 per cent is going to be financed into the cost of the operation, so the debt service on that 10 per cent is going to come from operations of that system,” said Romane, noting each Innisfail household is now paying $20 a month into a stabilization fund that will pay for the new service. “We are building up a ‘slush' fund – a stabilization fund – so when that big dollars hits and we have to pay to treat every gallon of wastewater that leaves town we will have a fund built up to lessen the impact of that increased rate over the following two or three years.”
Romane said Innisfail is already pumping about 500 cubic metres of wastewater – about 10 to 15 per cent of full capacity - into the regional system at the higher rates but when it moves up to 100 per cent by 2015 – residents will have “some cushion” for the full financial impact.
“We've tried to prepare ourselves for this regionalization as much as possible to minimize the impact when it happens,” said Romane, adding he expects the town to have built up between $2 and $3 million for when the full impact of the new system is felt in 2015.
Last year, town council introduced the stabilization fund concept and today each Innisfail household pays $20 a month into it, monies that will help pay for the cost of moving wastewater through the new service.
