Southern Manitoba communities to get $77M in water, waste treatment upgrades

ManitobaAt the Association of Manitoba Municipalities conference Tuesday in Winnipeg, Premier Wab Kinew touched on joint efforts at the federal and provincial level to rural address crime, optimism around building up Churchill, praise for wildfire fighters in the north and $77 million in funds for wastewater upgrades in southern Manitoba through the Canada housing infrastructure fund. Premier’s address at municipalities meeting touches on rural safety, building up Churchill, wildfire responseBryce Hoye · CBC News · Posted: Nov 25, 2025 3:50 PM EST | Last Updated: 3 hours agoListen to this articleEstimated 4 minutesThe audio version of this article is generated by text-to-speech, a technology based on artificial intelligence.Premier Wab Kinew speaks with media after question period at the Manitoba Legislature on Oct. 16. On Tuesday, Kinew announced nearly $77 million in support through the Canada housing infrastructure fund for water and wastewater treatment upgrades across southern Manitoba. (Bryce Hoye/CBC)A group of communities across southern Manitoba will share $76.9 million in drinking water and wastewater upgrades thanks to a joint federal-provincial funding commitment meant to support fast-growing towns and cities.The province announced support for five projects on Tuesday during an address at the Association of Manitoba Municipalities fall address in Winnipeg — including three $22-million waste and water treatment projects, ranging from the Steinbach area in the southeast through the Pembina Valley in south-central Manitoba and to Brandon in the southwest.”The more that we can build infrastructure in your communities, the more affordable life is going to be for your ratepayers. And so some big, big projects need to get done,” Premier Wab Kinew told a conference room of reeves and other AMM representatives at the RBC Convention Centre.”This helps you as the ratepayer on the cost of living and this is going to help our province add more housing to those fast-growing areas.”Two of the three biggest tranches of funding through the Canada housing infrastructure fund involve projects under the Red-Seine-Rat (RSR) Wastewater Co-operative, a wastewater co-op is owned by the southeastern municipalities of Niverville, Taché, Ritchot, Hanover, De Salaberry and La Broquerie. The RSR East Water and Wastewater Treatment network in and around Steinbach and the RSR West Water and Wastewater network in Brandon will each get $22 million. Another $22 million in capital funding is earmarked for the Pembina Valley Water Co-op.As well, $6.5 million in funding will go to the Boissevain Lagoon and $4.4 million to Morden’s sewer line to Winkler, according to a provincial news release.The announcements come weeks after Ottawa and Manitoba announced $166 million and $138 million, respectively, from the Canada Housing Infrastructure Fund will go toward Winnipeg’s multi-billion dollar sewage plant expansion.Municipal and Northern Relations Minister Glen Simard called the rural projects “shovel ready” on Tuesday and said work in Brandon is already underway.”You’ll see the benefits almost immediately,” Simard told reporters.The provincial channel of the Canada Housing Infrastructure Fund is meant to bolster investment in critical infrastructure in growing rural municipalities to support housing needs.Brandon Mayor Jeff Fawcett said the upgrades help ensure Manitoba’s second-largest city “is ready to grow and thrive for decades to come.”Hanover Reeve Jim Funk, chair of the Red-Seine-Rat Wastewater Co-operative, said the funds are “vital” to help ensure shovels are in the ground in the southeast by next year.And Dale Toews, CEO of the Pembina Valley Water Co-operative, said having federal-provincial buy-in signals the “economic importance” of expanding drinking water capital investment in the Pembina Valley region. During his address at the AMM conference, Kinew also acknowledged joint efforts at the federal and provincial level to address rural crime and addiction, and boost prospects around building up the Port of Churchill.Kinew also praised municipal wildfire fighters in the north this past summer, including in Flin Flon.”It was local fire departments from each and every one of your municipalities who worked together, shoulder to shoulder, zero sleep, and they saved one of the most iconic communities in our province,” Kinew said.He also said a coming review of Manitoba’s wildfire response will involve experts from Alberta who reviewed the wildfire response to the 2024 fires in Jasper, Alta.Kathy Valentino, president of the AMM, also announced Winnipeg will host the Federation of Canadian Municipalities annual conference in 2028.Valentino, also a Thompson city councillor, told municipal representatives that the AMM will be distributing $1 million in rebates to members this year.ABOUT THE AUTHORBryce Hoye is a multi-platform journalist with a background in wildlife biology. He has worked for CBC Manitoba for over a decade with stints producing at CBC’s Quirks & Quarks and Front Burner. He was a 2024-25 Knight Science Journalism Fellow at MIT. He is also Prairie rep for outCBC. He has won a national Radio Television Digital News Association award for a 2017 feature on the history of the fur trade, and a 2023 Prairie region award for an audio documentary about a Chinese-Canadian father passing down his love for hockey to the next generation of Asian Canadians.Selected storiesEmail: bryce.hoye@cbc.caFacebookMore by Bryce Hoye