REGINA — A major infrastructure commitment was announced Monday at the SUMA convention, with funding going to Regina, Saskatoon and Moose Jaw.
Minister of Government Relations Eric Schmalz announced that the governments of Canada and Saskatchewan are making a joint investment of more than $25.9 million through the Canada Housing Infrastructure Fund, or CHIF, to “develop or improve the essential water, wastewater, stormwater and solid waste infrastructure needed to build more homes faster.”
Schmalz said the funding will go to three projects in Regina, Moose Jaw and Saskatoon. More than $10 million will go to the City of Regina’s plans for water, wastewater and stormwater infrastructure for redevelopment of Taylor Field, including up to 500 new housing units. Affordable housing for the Taylor Field site has long been discussed in the city.
As well, the City of Saskatoon will receive more than $3 million for program development at the Material Recovery Centre. This is aimed at helping the city achieve a goal of diverting 70 per cent of waste from its landfill by enhancing infrastructure and services at the MRC.
The third community receiving funding is the City of Moose Jaw, which will receive the largest amount — more than $11 million in CHIF funding — for the Spring Creek Stormwater Management Project. That is aimed at improving the city’s stormwater infrastructure, protecting homes, reducing flooding and supporting future housing development. The city will also contribute more than $9 million toward the project.
Schmalz indicated this announcement is just the start. Under CHIF, the federal government is set to provide $187.9 million, while the provincial government will provide approximately $156 million to address housing-enabled infrastructure priorities.
“This is the first of what will be many more CHIF announcements in the coming months,” Schmalz said. “Those announcements will benefit municipalities across Saskatchewan.”
Federal Secretary of State for Rural Development Buckley Belanger acknowledged the need for infrastructure funding by municipalities across the province. He said the government was hearing concerns about the need to replace aging infrastructure.
“At the end of the day, we're going to see a lot of attention to Saskatchewan,” Belanger said.
He suggested to other communities interested that “a lot of the federal programs that are coming down the pipe, and some have been announced already, take advantage of them. Apply and put together some wide range of comprehensive ambitions you may have as a small town or a city in this case… My advice? Apply. And we'll push as many projects through as we can as Secretary of State for Rural Canada.”
When asked about concerns from municipal leaders that funding has dried up for CHIF, Belanger reiterated that the government was making a commitment, particularly in addressing housing.
“As you may know, I'm from northern Saskatchewan, and every community counts. And when we made housing commitments, the Prime Minister made these housing commitments nationally, we'll find the mechanisms or the programs or the partnerships that can make things happen in various communities,” Belanger said.
“I think the whole notion is apply, find your partnerships, and in any perspective, if you have corresponding financial support to a project, that makes it much easier to have the federal government engage so we can all accomplish the same objectives. We want to house Canadians, we're looking for good partners, we just start off with the process of apply, apply, apply.”
Regina Mayor Chad Bachynski said this funding goes “part of the way” to meet the infrastructure needs of the city.
“I think we're still looking for a three-way partnership or agreement with the federal government to carry us forward,” Bachynski said.
“This is through the CHIF fund, but I don't think we have a clear picture on what that means going forward. These are projects that we were already kind of working on. But we'd like to have some assurance as to what the future of a tripartite agreement looks like.”
