Town of Huntsville receives $50M in funding to support water infrastructure

The Town of Huntsville will receive 50 million dollars in provincial funding to support water infrastructure in their small but growing community.

"For the Golden Pheasant Wastewater Treatment Facility and for pipework that's necessary so that we can unlock 3,200 new homes," said Kinga Surma, Minister of Infrastructure.

The province's Housing-enabling Water Systems Fund, which totals 1.2 billion dollars, will aid municipalities in expanding water access to accommodate growing populations.

“We saw smaller medium-sized communities grow at an unanticipated rate and the challenge was that they didn't have the water and wastewater capacity and they didn't have the immediate capital to expand their facility to build those pipes, said Surma.

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The project, which has already started, will have three phases. It will involve upgrading the Wastewater Treatment Plant and supporting the installation of the Mount View Sewage Pumping Station, along with replacing its water main.

"Up here in northern communities, it is more expensive to put pipes in the ground because you have to do blasting and dig out pipes, so the infrastructure investments are more challenging, and we really appreciate the investment,” said Jeff Lehman District of Muskoka Chair.

The investment comes not long after Midland and Orillia also announced their multimillion-dollar water infrastructure in their communities. The City of Orillia received 10.5 million dollars while the Town of Miland received 30.1 million dollars.

“We talk about housing and how important it is in the entire region, but if you don't have the right infrastructure and the pumps and the treatment plants to support that, you’re not going to grow housing... so it's as simple as that,” said Nancy Alcock, the Mayor of Huntsville.

The project is planned to be completed in 2026 and the system is expected to be fully operational shortly after.