Mayor Brian Bowman says he’s hoping a deal between the city and the province is not far off when it comes to funding for updates to the North End Water Pollution Control Centre.
The sewage plant is in the midst of millions of dollars of upgrades but the city needs federal and provincial money to move to the next phase.
With the recent swearing-in of new Premier Heather Stefanson, the mayor said he hopes communication with his provincial counterparts will run more smoothly than it has in the past.
“The City of Winnipeg had to go through the province to be able to access federal funding, as well as provincial. We made that request in 2019 and I’m optimistic. The delays we’ve seen to date have been under a different premier,” Bowman said.
“We have a new premier that has struck a much more collaborative tone.”
On Wednesday, the city’s executive policy committee heard a report that even if the upgrades began immediately, it would take years to complete.
Bowman said the province has wanted a private firm to get involved in the upgrades, which is still open to discussion.
“Earlier, there had been discussions of full privatization, including operating and maintaining. That was not something we did a market sounding of,” the mayor told Global News.
“We’re looking at other … models for their consideration, and hopefully they’ll be good with it and we can get going.”