CALEB NICKERSON
CHAPEAU Sept. 14, 2020
On Monday morning, local officials met in Chapeau to announce a sizable investment in the village’s water and sewer services.
A total of $4,983,644 will be spent over a period of several years to replace the majority of the . . .
water and wastewater pipes in Chapeau (just under 5,000 metres), which have been in use for around 58 years. In the process, many of the streets in the village will also have to be resurfaced once the new pipes are laid.
The upgrade is a joint venture between all three levels of government and representatives of each were on hand for the announcement.
Pontiac MP Will Amos explained that previous joint funding models had been set up so that each level of government paid a third of the cost, which he said was prohibitive to small municipalities like L’Isle aux Allumettes. This new formula would see the feds and the province each foot 40 per cent of the bill, with the municipality kicking in the remaining 20 per cent. For the Chapeau project, this works out to $1,993,457 for the former and $996,730 for the latter.
“We all know how our small communities desperately need infrastructure investments and there couldn’t be a better time for a big infrastructure investment in our region,” Amos said. “This entire COVID-19 pandemic has been a real example of what makes Canada so strong and that is collaboration between levels of government that fundamentally care about the public interest.”
Amos added that this was part of a larger infrastructure program, announced back in 2018, and that his government would be investing $318.9 million to finance 280 drinking water supply and wastewater projects across this province, with similar programs taking place across the country.
“What we have are bilateral agreements with each province, every province getting the same per capita amount of funding, and then it flows down through to municipalities through a provincial program,” he explained.
The program in Quebec is known by the acronym FIMEAU, and will have more project submission periods in 2022 and 2024.
Pontiac MNA André Fortin emphasized the importance of having a reliable water supply.
“Water infrastructure is so crucial to the quality of life in town and the consequences of not having a proper water system can be dramatic as we’ve seen in recent years in other municipalities, so just for that reason alone, for the quality of life, for the health of our citizens here in the region, this is an announcement that has to be done,” he said.
L’Isle aux Allumettes Mayor Winston Sunstrum thanked Fortin and Amos and said that the history of this project went back several years.
“The credit for this project goes back to 2015, the director general at the time, Richard Vaillancourt, and the council back then had the foresight to proceed with an intervention plan requested by the province, to determine the state of our water and sewer lines,” he said. “The engineering study determined that the lines were in need of replacement. They had been in use for over 58 years, so well overdue to be replaced. Credit also goes to our present director general, Alicia Jones, and our present council for continuing to pursue the infrastructure grants.”
Sunstrum added that the work would likely start in 2021 and continue for several years. He emphasized that around 75 per cent of the municipal share would come from the roughly 130 households that have water and sewer connections in the village.
