Minister Ravi Kahlon said the province is urging funding support from the federal government
During a conference with media, Housing Minister Ravi Kahlon was questioned as to what the provincial government can do to support communities like Osoyoos that are grappling with necessary but expensive projects such as a new water treatment plant.
The conference was held on May 28 in Osoyoos, where the BC NDP caucus held their party retreat.
The community is currently looking at moving to pulling water from Osoyoos Lake instead of building a treatment plant for the wells that provide the town’s water, a decision that would save approximately $10 million.
That still leaves the town with a $51 million price tag on a plant to treat water from the lake.
Kahlon pointed to previously announced funding from the provincial government of $9 million for a new treatment plant, while acknowledging that there was still more that needed to be done.
He added that they provincial government was in talks with the federal government about funding for projects like the water treatment plant.
“We’re urging them to match our investments in infrastructure in our communities, because we know whether it’s water, whether it’s roads, whether it’s sewers, all of this is needed to unlock housing,” said Kahlon. “It can’t be all relying on the taxpayers in our communities.”
In addition to the $9 million in grant funding, the Town of Osoyoos had earmarked $16 million in the budget for the treatment plant, leaving another $26 million that would need to be accounted for. Even with additional grant funding, the town is likely to need to borrow the money for the facility.
Moving to lake water was chosen by town council as the ideal option, as treating the town’s groundwater of the high levels of manganese, ammonia, iron and biological matter it contains would have been both more expensive and more complicated to process.
READ MORE: Osoyoos looks to take on $51M lake-water project amid well troubles