The province just announced its substantial investment for Portage la Prairie's water and wastewater infrastructure.

"This money, which totals about $28-million between the $5,886,000 from the federal government and $22,863,00 from the province, will be put toward Phase 1 of our wastewater upgrades," says waterworks committee chair Wayne Wall.

He says this first phase will see the construction of a low-rate anaerobic reactor that pre-treats wastewater coming from McCain, Nutri-Pea, and the future Roquette plant. Planned water plant upgrades of about $3-million will will then commence, including efforts to increase water-pumping capacity at Portage's water plant for the Roquette area's industrial park.

Phase 2 will include nutrient removal for the large P3 project. With plans for Roquette to be in operation by spring of 2019, the City has to issue the tender for Phase 1 right away and hopes to begin digging sometime this fall.