Provincial investment brings long-awaited wastewater solution to Boissevain-Morton – DiscoverWestman.com

The official announcement of provincial funding for water and wastewater infrastructure upgrades across the province was a welcome surprise for municipalities across Manitoba, including Boissevain-Morton.

The governments of Canada and Manitoba announced yesterday morning a total investment of $76.9 million for these upgrades to critical infrastructure needed to build more homes, keep life affordable and grow their communities.

Premier Wab Kinew and Municipal and Northern Relations Minister Glen Simard both contacted Boissevain-Morton Mayor Judy Swanson about the announcement the day prior.    “We are so thankful that we received $6.5 million from the province for their share in our lagoon. So that will make it that we’ll be able to start right away, we’ll be able to build, we’ll be able to get it done!”

Swanson says it’s a been a long haul, having been first alerted about ten years ago that the current lagoon was not up to standards.  

At that time, the municipality began exploring potential upgrades to its lagoon system. The thought was that if they were going to build the same type of lagoon—a facultative lagoon—they would need to relocate it and acquire additional land, as modern facultative lagoons require significantly more space than the existing one.

Plans were drawn up to move the lagoon to the landfill site, but that option would involve transporting wastewater out to the new location and then pumping it back in for release, which posed logistical challenges. Seeking a better solution, the municipality investigated alternative systems, and the SAGR (Submerged Attached Growth Reactor) system seemed a viable option.

Swanson says, using the SAGR system allows the municipality to build where the current lagoon is located, just south of Boissevain.  There will be two different phases to the project.  

“The process in the spring will be to build a new cell and then put the SAGR system in the new cell and then empty the old cell and reline it and start over.  And we’ll be back to a two-cell system, but it will take probably until next year and probably part of the following year by the time we’re done,” she explains.

With the SAGR system and two cells, it will open the possibilities of future expansion for many years into the future, notes Swanson.

“So, this is really big for the municipality because we can’t build, we can’t go ahead if we don’t have the infrastructure in place. So that’s why this has been an important part of what we’ve been doing right from the beginning,” she says. “It’s been ‘How do we do this? How do we keep it to the funding that we can manage locally?’ And with the help of the province and the federal government, we’re able to do that.”

Earlier the federal government invested $1.25 million into the project.  “And then we had a loan for $2.65 million which we passed a borrowing bylaw and that was back in 2024 so that we had the funding in place. So, this finishes the funding.”

The entire project is pegged at $10 million, “and you figure out if we didn’t have the help of the province, what that would cost each household, you can’t do it! So, we had to depend on provincial and federal partners.”

“It’s been a lot of years of trying to figure out what to do, how to do it, what’s the best way make it so that it’s going to work for everyone,” explains Swanson, “and we’re delighted that the tenders will be going out very soon.  We should be starting in the spring with a new lagoon. So, exciting news!”

Additional projects receiving provincial funding include:

• $22 million for the RSR East Water and Wastewater Treatment network;
• $22 million RSR West (Brandon) Water and Wastewater network;
• $22 million Pembina Valley Water Co-op capital plan;
• $4.4 million to Morden sewer line to Winkler.