Province assures reeve about tertiary project

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This article was published 02/06/2018 (2152 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

La Broquerie reeve Lewis Weiss says he has received assurances from Manitoba Sport, Culture, and Heritage regarding archaeological concerns delaying the municipality’s $4 million lagoon tertiary cell project.

Following his most most recent council meeting, Weiss told The Carillon he met May 16 at the Manitoba legislature with acting deputy minister Dori Gingera-Beauchemin, and was promised department officials will “do everything in their power” to expedite heritage resource tests currently underway near the banks of the Seine River, to help ensure the municipality won’t lose $2 million of time-sensitive federal funding.

“They made it very clear they’re on our side,” Weiss said, “but there are rules set in place and they have to follow them.”

In a letter last November, the department’s Historic Resources Branch informed La Broquerie council a “heritage resource impact assessment” was needed before the project could receive an environmental license.

The RM budgeted $28,500 for the tests earlier this spring.

Weiss noted a subdivision planned near Marchand has since been hit with the same requirement.

The department believes the tests are necessary to rule out human remains or relics buried in the sandy soil, but Weiss said he doubted agricultural land cultivated for decades will yield anything of significance.

In the meantime, the municipality continues to forge ahead with preparations for the project. Earlier this month, council approved the purchase of eight more acres of land at a cost of $180,000. Weiss said the force main connecting the new wetland cell to the existing lagoon will run through the parcel.

Prompted by provincial regulations implemented in 2016, the new 115-acre wetland treatment cell is intended to reduce nitrogen and phosphorus levels in wastewater discharged into the Seine River.