On March 27th, 2024, AMBM President and Reeve of the Rural Municipality of La Broquerie, Mr. Ivan Normandeau, issued the following statement in response to the CIB’s announcement of a commitment to invest $140 million in new water and wastewater infrastructure in southern Manitoba:
The AMBM applauds this investment (in the form of a loan) from the Canada Infrastructure Bank (CIB), which will improve water quality for thousands of people in five southern Manitoba communities, including the rural bilingual municipalities of Ritchot and Taché, while supporting their sustainable growth.
Responding directly to a critical need for capacity and infrastructure long expressed by the municipalities concerned, this is the CIB’s first investment under its Infrastructure for Housing Initiative (IHI).
This green infrastructure partnership involves the City of Brandon and the Red-Seine-Rat Wastewater Cooperative (RSR). The RSR is made up of the Rural Municipality of Hanover, the Town of Niverville, and the following two bilingual municipalities: the Rural Municipality of Taché and the Rural Municipality of Ritchot.
In the RSR area, the project will provide the four communities concerned with a new centralized wastewater treatment plant, replacing traditional lagoons with mechanized wastewater treatment and reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 55,300 tonnes over its lifetime. It will also include the installation of a wastewater conveyance system and new lifting and pumping stations.
This investment by the CIB will enable our two member municipalities to significantly increase their capacity to support their rising demographics and realize their growth plans for residential, industrial and commercial development. In the RSR territory alone, this investment will provide the municipalities involved with the infrastructure capacity required to add some 12,600 new housing units. The result will be an investment in the local economy of nearly $1.9 billion in new capital and construction, and the creation of some 3,400 new jobs.
We celebrate this major project in its entirety, and congratulate the rural municipalities of Ritchot and Taché in particular for making this crucial investment in their future a reality. This project is in line with our Notice on the 16 Strategic Priorities of Manitoba’s Bilingual Municipal Leadership, which calls for investment in strategic infrastructure, including affordable housing and related municipal infrastructure.
By helping to mobilize our member municipal governments to increase the construction of affordable housing to attract and welcome more new families and newcomers, the project contributes to the implementation of our Strategy to Support Economic Immigration in Manitoba’s Bilingual Municipalities.
It’s also important to note that this project is in line with the new Municipal Maturity Model (3M) currently being adopted by all rural bilingual municipalities in Manitoba (concerning the indicator on physical infrastructure and services), which underlines the municipalities role in renewing and maintaining its infrastructure in keeping with its official languages commitments.
Ultimately, this regional water treatment infrastructure is a critical public service that will contribute to the development and vitality of French-speaking and bilingual communities, Official Language Minority Communities (OLMCs), fostering their vitality, directly and indirectly. In addition, the following municipalities are considering joining the project in the future: the City of Steinbach and the rural bilingual municipalities of La Broquerie and De Salaberry.
The CIB’s investment builds on a $110 million investment announced in 2022 by the governments of Manitoba and Canada for a regional wastewater treatment facility in the bilingual municipalities of Taché and Ricthot.
The AMBM is the voice of bilingual municipal leadership in the province of Manitoba. It represents 15 local governments committed to providing services in both official languages to their citizens. Together, these municipalities represent the majority of Manitoba’s population. Manitoba’s bilingual municipal leadership is also at the head of the AMBM Group, a consortium of three complementary organizations: AMBM, the Economic Development Council of Manitoba Bilingual Municipalities (Conseil de développement économique des municipalités bilingues du Manitoba, or CDEM) and Eco-West Canada (EWC), which specializes in the green economy. These three complementary organizations actively contribute to the development, vitality and sustainability of the province’s Official Language Minority Communities (OLMCs) and the province as a whole.
Information: Office of the Chief Executive Officer (O-CEO), 204-289-4077, [email protected].
