Feds fall short on promise to foot half the bill for St. John's wastewater plant expansion

The federal government has come up short on its commitment to provide half the money needed to complete an ambitious wastewater treatment facility for the metro St. John's area.

Ottawa had pledged to pay for50 per cent of the fundingto complete theRiverhead Wastewater Treatment Facility secondary treatment expansion projectby the end of 2020.

In a letter to federal Infrastructure and Communities Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne, Lisa Dempster Newfoundland and Labrador's minister of Municipal Affairs said that Ottawa has only come up with 43.85 per cent of the initial agreement.

That leaves 56.15 per cent on the bill for St. John's, Mount Pearl, Paradise and the provincial government, and works out to an extra cost of about $16 million that will need to be shared.

St. John's Mayor Danny Breen said the federal government requires the secondary wastewater treatment facility, based on recent regulations. The plan is to build it next to the primary one on Southside Road by the St. John's harbour.

The promised 50 per cent funding was supposed to tally roughly $127 million, but Dempster said that only a maximum of about $111 million was offered by Infrastructure Canada.

Dempster is asking for the full amount to be approved, because the federal share that was offered was based on the original estimateand not the most recent one.

Breendoubled down with his own letter to the federal minister.

In it, he said that the province would be left with 23 per cent of the cost while the three municipalities would have to cough up 33 per cent.

He added thatSt. John's will not be participating in the project unless the municipalities' total share equals 25 per cent.

"They're basing their funding on the lower $220 million dollar cost estimate. We don't want to get into a project as important and the magnitude of this, knowing that we're going to be over budget before we start," Breen told CBC News Monday.

"We did the cost update for them at their request. We added in the inflation factors as per their request, and our new estimates were $250 million dollars."

Champagne and Breen are expected to have a meeting on Aug. 12, at which point a statement from government will follow.

Reasons for the second facility

Breen said in 2013-14 levels from the primary wastewater facility showed that it was in a medium level of risk for over capacity. The federal government requires municipalities with wastewater facilities to move to a secondary treatment facility in those instances.

The current facility handles wastewater from St. John's, Mount Pearl and Paradise.

"It's a further process, to further clean the wastewater," Breen said.

"We shouldn't be paying a higher percentageof the total cost than the provincial government. So whatever way the federal and provincial government work this out, the municipalities and the province should be paying the same."

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