Feds will help reduce flooding in Sault, Sheehan announces

Work will begin almost immediately on a $5.5 million project to improve wastewater services in the Sault’s Ward 2 area, it was announced at Civic Centre Monday morning, thanks to some federal and provincial government funding.

Sault MP Terry Sheehan joined Sault Mayor Christian Provenzano to announce the federal government will be providing up to $2.1 million for a project that will improve wastewater infrastructure on top of the hill in the McNabb Street area and catch basin located there, which is susceptible to flooding.

The provincial government will fork over approximately $1 million toward the project, while the city will spend over $2.5 million. 

“It’s really important that we have support from our federal and provincial partners to maintain our infrastructure and this is a great case where we work together and shows a high level of collaboration,” Provenzano said.

“The project’s ready to go, we already have a contractor waiting to do the project, this is $5.5 million we will be putting into our community immediately on top of the hill in the McNabb Street area,” Provenzano said.     

“We’re going to contact the contractor today…we’ll be looking at wrapping up the 2017 work in October or November.  The deadline to have the money spent is the end of March, 2018, so there will be some work done in the winter,” said Carl Rumiel, design and construction engineer with the city’s Engineering department.

There will be some traffic disruption involved in areas such as McNabb Street, Pim Street and Gladstone Avenue.

The federal funding announced Monday comes from the Government of Canada’s Clean Water and Wastewater fund.

“The government of Canada has been working…to deliver unprecedented investments in infrastructure,” Sheehan said.

Apart from Monday’s announcement for the Sault, over $4.5 million in federal funding will be spent for over 50 water and wastewater projects in 27 other Ontario communities, including Blind River, Hilton Beach, the Township of Central Manitoulin and Timmins.