Village of Burns Lake council applies for grant

During a Jan. 4 meeting, the Village of Burns Lake (VBL) council approved a recommendation to apply for grant funding to Canada and B.C.’s Investing in Canada Infrastructure Program, Green Infrastructure and Environmental Quality funding stream for sewage treatment facility improvements.

According to the B.C. Government website, the grant offers funding for up to 73.33 per cent of local government projects, which is divided, with 40 per cent coming from the federal government and 33.33 per cent from provincial.

The reason for the grant is because True Engineering determined from a feasibility and assessment report that much of the sewage lagoon infrastructure in Burns Lake is beyond its useful service life. In addition, upcoming changes from federal and provincial levels of government for treated sewer discharge into Burns lake are going to mandate improvements to take place.

In addition, it was noted in the meeting that upgrading the wastewater treatment plant is an important and necessary step in continuing efforts to improve the quality of life in Burns Lake while at the same time lessening impacts on the surrounding environment.

The total cost of the sewage facility improvements is $6,750,000, of which 73.33 per cent would be paid for with funding from the grant, which would mean that the remaining cost that would fall upon the VBL would be $1,800,225. However, the VBL has an inspector approval for loaned funds of $1,640,000 which was approved in 2020.

This means that the VBL would be responsible for covering the remaining $160,000, which according to council would be allocated from the sewer capital reserve fund.

Funding announcements from the grant application could be expected in late 2022, or early 2023. Should the grant funding be approved, engineer design will commence in 2022 with construction expected in 2023. Council previously applied for the grant in 2020, but the application was denied.

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