Portage la Prairie City Council's hoping to recover some of the costs associated with the nutrient removal project. The city's spent about $500,000 on creating a business case and studies, related to the provincially mandated work, following changes to wastewater regulations. Waterworks Chair Wayne Wall says the in-depth studies were mandated by the former federal government to receive funding. While that's no the case anymore, they're hoping to recover some of the money already spent on the work.

"Even though the new federal government has said we're not required to do all these assessments under P3 (Public-Private Partnerships Canada) to apply for funding, we're entering into this agreement to get back $143,000 of the dollars we've already spent. We've spent about half-of-a-million dollars doing a business case and planning."

Under the agreement the city would be able to recover 50 per cent of the eligible costs for the business case, and 25 per cent of the costs related to the creation of a schematic design. Wall says the planning for the project is more or less complete, and says they're now able to begin to move forward.

"We're pretty much done with the business case planning, and so in the near future we'll be looking at if we're going with a P3 project, or do we go with traditional funding and building of a wastewater treatment plant."

The large project has been the subject of much discussion around council chambers, given the large price tag likely associated with the work. While it's a major project, Wall says they're not sure when they'll be able to move forward, citing the need for funding from all levels of government.

"We've had delays over the last number of years in getting governments to the point where they want to fund these things, and where they have the money to fund these things. Now, of course, we have a provincial election coming up and so we hope the new provincial government will carry on with giving us money toward this project. We'd like, if possible, to get one-third (federal), one-third (provincial) and one-third (municipal) financing for this thing."

The upgrades to achieve the mandated nutrient removal regulations is expected to cost well over a million dollars, and was cited as one of the reasons for the city's most recent water rate increase.