Month: July 2023

A proposed multi-million dollar sewer project in West St. Paul has some residents worried they will have to pay tens of thousands of dollars, as the rural municipality is looking to homeowners to help foot the bill.

Gary Galawan has lived in West St. Paul for 42-and-a-half years, but he may soon have to pay more than $30,000 if he wants to keep living there.

“That’s outrageous, unrealistic,” Galawan told CTV News on Wednesday.

Galawan’s home is one of more than 100 properties affected by a major sewer improvement project on six residential roads including Hiawatha Avenue, Minnehaha Avenue, Kenabeek Street, Evelyn Avenue, Nye Avenue and Baldock Street.

West St. Paul is planning a major sewer improvement project on six residential roads including Hiawatha Avenue, Minnehaha Avenue, Kenabeek Street, Evelyn Avenue, Nye Avenue and Baldock Street.

The rural municipality says residents in this area rely on holding tanks or septic fields for sewer treatment. Because of this, it says there are concerns that wastewater or grey water could be diverted into municipal ditches, and cause potential environmental issues for the nearby Red River.

West St. Paul is now planning to hook up 114 properties along these streets to the RM’s main sewer line.

The total project comes with an estimated $7.2 million price tag, with Manitoba’s water services board covering half that. West St. Paul is on the hook for the other half – $3.6 million – and is looking to the affected property owners to pay that debt pack.

It’s not the fact that residents will have to pay to hook up to the sewer line that has Galawan and his neighbours upset.

“We don’t expect not to pay anything. That wouldn’t be fair to any of the other residents of West St. Paul that have already been hooked