City moves forward with funding application for Sub Marine Water Supply Line and water treatment plans

Richard Puuci, the city of Prince Rupert's Director of Operations
provided an update on the city's plans to access funding for the
city's water infrastructure program

Plans for further work on the city's water infrastructure projects made for a theme at Monday evening's City Council session, as council members received some background related to a grant funding opportunity for Green infrastructure through the Province of British Columbia, with the city to follow up on some potential funding to be put  towards the City's submarine line and water treatment plans.

Richard Pucci, the city of Prince Rupert's Director of Operations provided the update on Monday, noting that the City had been unsuccessful on a previous attempt in accessing funding from the last round of funding that was available.

As they look to submit their application for this years round, Mr. Pucci noted that if successful, the monies received would cover off sixty six percent of the costs.

Mr. Pucci also observed for Council that even if the City is approved for funding, they don't have to accept it, should they not be able to come up with the required one third commitment money that such applications require from municipal governments.

"What we have discussed with the province is an option to look for water treatment and also our submarine line that we were unsuccessful in the past round. So we are putting together a grant application with cost estimates to go forward with the province on that. It would cover sixty six percent of the costs, these grants you can get the grants and you don't have to accept them, so if we can't come up with our commitment money then we would just reject the grant after" 

The submarine water line is another component of the City of Prince Rupert's water infrastructure program, a theme which Mayor Lee Brain explored during the recent Hays 2.0 presentation at the Lester Centre back in April.

During that update for the public the Mayor observed that the submarine line would be the third part of the current water supply upgrade program, while the issue of the waste treatment planning as a longer term issue expected to span a twenty year period from 2020-2040.

As part of his review of the funding opportunity through the Province, the Director of Operations suggested to the council members, that it would be a good idea to put forward the application and to make sure that the city is in the pot for the money.

Following his presentation, Council members offered no questions related to his overview of the situation and then voted in favour of the resolution of support for staff's application for the fund.

Some of the past notes on the city's current water infrastructure program can be found here.

You can review Mr. Pucci's talking points on the funding opportunity from the City's Video Archive, the presentation for Council starts at the thirteen minute mark.




More items related to the City's infrastructure issues can be reviewed here.

Further background from Monday's City Council session can be found here, while a wider overview of Civic issues is available from our Council Discussion page here.

Cross posted from the North Coast Review