A new single-window intake period for provincial infrastructure applications has the city of Portage putting forth several requests. A special meeting was held yesterday to approve the submission of six applications, requesting a total of $32,090,000 for various projects. The individual applications range from $400,000, up to $10.6 million. Finance Chair Brent Budz notes while it's a significant amount of funding they're requesting, it's all for projects already included in the city's ten-year debt management plan.

"Some of it is time sensitive, some if it is not. If we were to get accepted for the dollar amount to our city for these projects, it's not a matter of saying you need to spend those dollars in 'X' amount of timeframe. We'd be able to adjust with the province or the feds in terms of when that spending would happen. Again, this isn't necessarily new projects we're looking at, it's existing projects accessing federal and provincial dollars to help fund them."

The project with the largest amount requested is the work on Saskatchewan Avenue West, which includes drainage, roads, and utility work. Two grants are being submitted for that project, totalling $13.2 million. Meanwhile, the Island Park Bridge Project comes in as the second highest, with two grants totalling over $11 million put forward. While the city's requesting a large amount for future projects, Budz says putting forth several applications is the best approach. 

Mayor Irvine Ferris and Finance Chair Brent Budz discuss the applications

"It's a large ask, but at the same time I think we're going with a conservative approach, in that you may ask for something, but may not receive all of it. Why not ask for as much as we can acquire, and we'll adjust if we're successful through the application process."

Budz notes while they're facing the August 26th deadline for provincial infrastructure funding applications, they're not sure just when they'll hear if their applications were successful.

The complete list of funding applications is as follows:


1) asphalt road renewal, 18th St NW road construction and roadway dust control under the Municipal
Road and Bridge Program in the amount of $400,000 ; and

2) the Crescent Lake Causeway construction project, under Municipal Bridge Program in the amount
of $3.69M, (Phase 1 cost $7.38M), and

3) the Crescent Lake Causeway construction project, under the Small Communities Fund in the
amount of $7.6M (total project cost $11.4M); and

4) for the WTP Upgrading project, under the Clean Water and Waste Water Fund, in the amount of
$7.2M (total project cost $9.69M).

5) for the Saskatchewan Ave. West Land Drainage and Road Reconstruction; under the Small
Communities Fund in the amount of $10.6M (total project cost $27M; MIT portion is $11M)

6) for the Saskatchewan Ave. West Utility Renewal; under the Clean Water and Waste Water Fund, in
the amount of $2.6M (total project cost $3.5M)