Three big projects the community has been waiting on for some time took a big step forward at last week’s Winkler city council meeting.
First up, council passed a resolution that paves the way for the wastewater treatment plant construction to get started.
That project’s tender closed earlier this spring with an estimated overall cost of $56.7 million. The federal and provincial governments are paying for the bulk of it; the municipal share totals $17.1 million, with Winkler covering 78.4 per cent of that (approximately $13.4) million and the RM of Stanley contributing 21.6 per cent (just over $3.6 million).
“This has been a long time coming,” Mayor Henry Siemens said at the meeting. “It’s a project we’ve worked very hard on. We’re very happy we have the RM of Stanley at the table as a partner to help make it feasible. And to be at this point today is very exciting.”
“We wouldn’t be able to grow any further without it,” added Deputy Mayor Andrew Froese.
The winning tender for the project went to Penn-co Construction out of Winnipeg. Froese noted the city hopes to get shovels in the ground as soon as possible.
With both the wastewater project and the $14.6 million expansion to the Winkler water treatment plant coming in on target financially, council has decided it can feasibly move forward with renovations to the aging Winkler Centennial Arena.
The plan is to gut the interior of the building to redevelop and modernize it. The facility will get new energy efficient systems, including ice plant upgrades; extensive building code upgrades, including removing the asbestos from the walls; safer spectator viewing areas; and more accessible public amenities.
“The renovation serves to ensure the longevity of operations and significantly improve safety for participants and spectators,” said Froese.
Council gave first reading to a local improvement bylaw for the project, which is estimated to cost $23.7 million.
Winkler already has funding commitments from the federal government ($7.9 million) and the provincial government ($3.1 million), leaving the community on the hook for about $12.7 million.
The City has committed $5.1 million from its reserves towards the project, so it will need to borrow up to $7.5 million.
The term for that loan is 15 years with an interest rate currently estimated at up to eight per cent per year, resulting in debt repayment of over $876,000 annually.
Winkler will raise those funds, in part, through a local improvement tax. A residential property valued at $300,000, for example, will pay $104 a year for the next 15 years.
Community member Mark Harder addressed council to ask a few questions about the project, including whether it’s fair to burden taxpayers with it at a time when many households are struggling to put food on the table amidst rising inflation.
Council acknowledged the issues people are facing, but stressed the nearly 60-year-old arena needs to be brought up to modern building codes. Doing it now means the federal and provincial grants—which come with a deadline—give the community much more bang for its bucks
“We’re going to have to bring that thing to code in the not too distant future and then we’ll have to do it without the support of these [funding] programs and we’ll pay more,” Siemens pointed out. “We’ve looked at these numbers—we would literally be paying more just to bring the arena to code if we walked away from these grants to do the renovation [now].
“We just felt that this is the right thing to do at this time,” the mayor said. “But we do recognize that there are some difficulties to it whenever we come and we ask the community for additional money.”
“This facility brings a lot of benefit in terms of recreation and entertainment,” said Froese, noting it also draws people to the community, which benefits local hotels, restaurants, and other businesses. “The way we see it, this is an investment in the future.”
The City has already pre-approved three design build firms for this project. They will now formally bid on it.
It’s expected construction will begin this fall and that the renos would be done by late 2025.
Finally, also at last week’s meeting, council approved the findings of a feasibility study it commissioned on public transportation.
The report calls for a progression strategy to introduce subsidized transit in Winkler.
“We will be starting with the Home to Hub rideshare program, with opportunities to grow and expand based on the research we get from that,” Froese said, thanking the community for all the input they provided through the study process over the past year.
Coun. Marvin Plett acknowledged that public transit is never a revenue-generating service, “but it’s very necessary as a community grows to make transportation equitable for all our citizens.
“To be able to move forward in this way, starting off with the rideshare Home to Hub type of thing will allow us to, in a sustainable way, an affordable way, find out where the bus routes should be, rather than to set up a bunch of bus routes and buy a bunch of buses and not know if they’re running in the right places.”
“I think this is a really good first step in getting our feet wet in the public transportation business,” agreed Coun. Peter Froese.
The hope is to have the rideshare program up and running by year’s end.
