Funding secured for upgrades at two Ontario water facilities

Two small Ontario communities are now set with funding for critical water facility upgrades, the province has announced.

Full funding is now available to replace one kilometre of storm sewer and 45 catch basins with sumps in the eastern Ontario Village of St-Eugène. Further north, in the Town of Latchford, funding has been secured to rehabilitate and upgrade the local water pollution control plant.

Two-hundred metres of mountable curb will also be added on St-Eugène’s Fatima Street and 200 metres of sidewalks will be replaced and extended on Labrosse Street, according to local officials.

“Investments in essential public infrastructure are vital to building healthy and resilient communities,” announced Francis Drouin, MP for Glengarry-Prescott-Russell. “These important upgrades to the stormwater management system will help keep the residents of St-Eugène safe and healthy while better protecting the environment,” added Drouin.

Ontario announced the final required funding for the St-Eugène project in late January. The federal government is investing $516,512 in the project through the Green Infrastructure Stream of the Investing in Canada plan. East Hawkesbury is contributing $191,238 and the United Counties of Prescott and Russell is providing $153,146.

In Latchford, located on Bay Lake on the Montreal River, the nearly $500,000 in rehabilitation and upgrades will also cover the water pollution control plant’s chlorine contact chamber to allow for the installation of an ultraviolet water disinfection system. A new building will also be constructed to house the system, officials said.

“Their contributions greatly assist in minimizing the cost to the municipality and thence the users for this necessary improvement to our wastewater treatment system,” Latchford Mayor George Lefebvre said of the federal and provincial funding.